| The
Art of Non-verbal communication
|
|
I
squeak...
My eyes speak...
Even while the rest of me has already received a reply to my message!
|
| |
| Introduction |
 |
| Has
it happened to you that all that you want to say has already been
said by your eyes, while your head is still ransacking your cupboard
of thoughts for that correct word and the right turn of the phrase,
that simply eludes you?
|
| |
| Learn
how to communicate better through your eyes and all the other non-verbal
signals that most of us are constantly giving off.
|
| |
| Non-verbal
signals can spread from one person to another like a wild fire.
You know it's not what you say, not so much how you say but the
way you look when you say that gets the message across rather dramatically
or subtly as the case may be.
|
| |
| How
you sit, stand, walk and really strike a pose would communicate
more messages more powerfully than you can possibly fathom.
|
| |
| Speech
perhaps is a very limited medium of communication. In times to come,
we may be able to uncover and open up all those far, more powerful
communication channels that we imagine only the Rishis of ancient
times to be capable of.
|
| |
| Do
you think that when you have taken the first step forward to greet
someone, your first communication begins with the first words that
you speak? Well, verbal communication, Yes! But non-verbal communication,
well, and there's tons of it!
|
| |
| We
cannot forget our cave time and jungle time lives in our evolution
as a species, can we? And those evolutionary roots are really, really
deep. Therefore, just like the people of ancient times, where messages
had to be sent and exchanged across the miles without a single word
or look being exchanged, so too in these modern times, those same
systems are still in place, communicating silently to the silent
half of our brain, which simply absorbs and interprets all the non
verbal signals of communication being sent.
|
| |
| In
this short article, we will explore with you the impact of some
popular non-verbal communication signals that you need to be attentive
to:
|
| |
|
Ways
to speak without saying a word!
Let
your walk talk!
|
| Do
you generally swagger? Amble? Waddle? Or Walk with an inflated puffed
out chest? Or are you stooped double? Or does your neck crane out
or your chin tilt up while you walk? Or do you walk in a jerky,
irregular way? Or like a person in a desperate hurry?
|
| |
| We
don't have to interpret what each of these ways of walking would
mean. We guess that each style of walking is self-explanatory.
|
| |
| |
From
a distance, after taking note of the way you are dressed, the next
point that your potential soul mate is going to be watching you
for is the way you walk. |
| |
  |
Whether
you like it or not, the way you carry yourself certainly communicates
its own message. Therefore, what you could do is take care to make
sure that you are not communicating some facet of your personality
very strongly; simply by the way you walk.Whichever way you walk,
make sure that it |
does not send a wrong communication signal - in the sense, you may
have acquired that deliberate, wild swaggering gait sometime during
your teens, and that may have just stayed on!
You
are now a calm, stable disciplined and mature being yet the message
you may communicate would be a wild, reckless, adventurer. |
| |
Whichever
way you walk, if you don't want other people to draw unpleasant
or incorrect observations about you based on the way you walk, some
ways you can try and see yourself as others see you would be to
ask one of your friends or family members to make a video recording
of you walking across a room or corridor. Tell your friend to do
this exercise without telling you so that your walking style will
not be affected by any camera conscious effort you may add as a
special effect. Of course, then that would not be a reflection of
your true walking style!
|
| |
Now,
once you can get some comments from your friends, relatives and
other well wishers about your gait and you can also make an objective
evaluation of your walking style, you can start correcting yourself,
if necessary.
|
| |
One
way to get a balanced gait would be to walk across a room balancing
a couple of books on your head. Although this is a very old fashioned
method, it works wonderfully! Try it sometime, either on yourself
or on your friends and relatives and notice the difference.
|
| |
| Strike
the right note of poise and pose while sitting or standing |
|
|
|
After
checking out the way you walk, the second step would be to
understand the way you sit or stand. Do you sit slouched on
the sofa or chair, or do you sit gripping another chair excitedly?
Do you sit or stand with your arms folded across your chest
or with your arms raised and held behind your head or back?
Do you sit or stand with your legs or hands crossed over one
another or spread wide apart? |
|
|
Each
one of these gestures communicates a very, strong and
powerful message. Wouldn't you far prefer to communicate
verbally, since body language can sometimes send signals
and messages a little ambiguously? What you need to
do is to tone down all these special effects of arm
and leg movements. |
|
|
As
far as possible, try to communicate in a very neutral way, unless
you want to pass on an explicit message. In that case, your body language
communication may come in as a very powerful and effective medium.
What you need to be clear about is that
it helps if you are a little inscrutable or hard to understand, especially
at the beginning of a relationship. Therefore, a neutral body language
signal can help to add to the element of mystery or suspense.
The important point that you need to be attentive
to is to understand the important differences and cultural connotations
that body language can have for people in different cultures and
regions of the world. For example, a head nod in Japan would have
a rather meaning than a head nod in India or in a Western country.
Check those factors out!
| You
can be a finger glove puppeteer if you can point fingers well! |
|
|
|
What
do you do when you are angry and want to accuse the other person?
Do you raise your voice and jab a threatening finger at the
other person? Or do you shrug your shoulders and just amble
on? Or do you tilt your chin and promise to wreak revenge? Or
do you shrink yourself in to a tiny creature and hope that the
floor will give away so that you can escape? |
|
|
|
|
