Studies say that during a face-to-face meeting, we expressed more than 60% of the information we transmit with our body, that is, when we are not silent and express ourselves at 100%. The movements we make are far from our consciousness. For example, bowing, shrugging your shoulders, or crossing your arms doesn’t go through our conscious decision-making channel.
When we capture information, we also realize the impulsive and uncontrolled side of that language, so we rely more on body language than on the words we hear, so we raise our eyebrows when a speech is not consistent with the posture or expression of the face. Do you think anyone could convince you that he liked a movie looking upset?
- On the other hand.
- The fact that nonverbal expression decisions often go through channels outside the consciousness does not mean that we cannot redirect them.
- At least in part.
- The same goes for breathing: you don’t normally control it.
- Do you?However.
- When you try you can control much of the process.
- With nonverbal language the same thing happens.
- We can control it in part.
- Even with practice we can become really good at this.
A really interesting phenomenon that happens with nonverbal language is that it has the power to think, but it also has the power to generate change, for example, previous studies tell us that people who raise their chins and look at the horizon for a few minutes. minutes later they are more confident and convincing in their speech, so the way we introduce ourselves to the world can greatly affect how we feel and what income we will earn.
Imagine that you are going to make a presentation and a question arises: sitting or standing ?, it is a question of your nonverbal language that you can easily control, the simple answer would be to choose the option in which you think you feel most comfortable . But if it doesn’t make much difference, which one should I choose, which one would be better for me?If you’re talking to a small audience, you’ll have more advantages when performing the presentation in session, but if the audience is large, you might want to get up.
If that doesn’t solve your doubts think that if you choose to get up you’ll have to be much more expressive than if you were sitting, so if you’re a very expressive person or if the subject demands it choose otherwise, if you’re a quiet person, sitting will help you project a better image.
If you choose to get up, separate your legs a little so that muscle tension doesn’t tire you in the first few minutes and doesn’t swing from one leg to the other. It’s best to change locations before you feel the ground burn. Think that if you convey discomfort, your listener or listeners will also feel that feeling.
If you have chosen to communicate sitting down, do not make the mistake of lying down. On the other hand, if you lean forward, the audience will feel like you’re interested not only in what you’re saying, but also in what they have to say. Finally, with this inclination you will get a disadvantage: you may feel that your lungs are a little overwhelmed and that you have a little trouble holding your breath. Hence the importance of pausing with some frequency.
Basically, gestures serve to approach or approach the people who listen to us, a gesture can be, for example, to take a step back. Proxémics (part of the semiotics dedicated to the study of the organization of space in linguistic communication) teaches us that people are usually four types of spaces because of the trust we have with the people with which we communicate, which appear in the following diagram.
So when you take a step towards someone, you send them a sign of confidence and interest, on the other hand, as you take a step back, you send them a signal with the opposite message, on the other hand, how to expose the palms of your hands. our hands is also another important axis of information.
With mimicry, there is still a curious fact: if two people attending a meeting feel comfortable, one (usually the person who does not have the initiative) will tend to imitate the gestures of the other, so if the first one touches the nose, the other will probably do so a few moments later. This effect is due to our fantastic mirror neurons!They’ve been working since we were kids.
They say that the gaze is the mirror of the soul and that sparks also spring from it. In addition, in flirting and in the conquest game, it is something that initially usually works as teams, to start transforming with the first statements and kisses into a shared channel that produces telepathic phenomena.
The gaze is also understood as a sign of sincerity, as well as a sign of introversion, which is why introverted and sincere people would find the the opposite river, the gaze is also a sign of attention: we must not forget that for people who can see, vision is the predominant sense.
On the other hand, an evasive look can not only be a symbol of lies or secrets, but it can also be a sign of shame or protection, one way or another, people who avoid eye contact do so because, for some reason, they intend to disable it They do not want to send conflicting information about something they say or do not want to send more information than they say.
In any case, the opening of this communication channel is a sign of security and robustness, on the other hand, it is a way of recognizing the rest of our partners and telling them that they are important enough to deserve our attention. tends to disable this rope, for any reason, I suggest you don’t do it and open it to everything you can give and receive through it.
Posture, mimicry and gaze can be the main elements of nonverbal communication, so knowing your particularities and consciously intervening can reinforce our messages and improve the image we project. Do you dare to experiment?