Your body talks too.......

My favourite model that I use, is a very small teddy.

Standing at 10 cm, he has been the inspiration for many 

of my ink and pen works.

While drawing my first Teddy, I quickly realized how easy it was to

convey different emotional states by just moving his head 

and body parts about. 

(An excellent asset for a model methinks.)

Although this model was small enough to fit into the palm of my hand,

as a conveyor of emotions, he was a ''giant''.

When I was first introduced to the term ''body language''

I have to admit that I was quite skeptical about it, and

although I did not give it much credence, a seed was sown.

So, what is it?  

Body language is a type of non-verbal communication such as

facial expression, body posture, use of space, and eye movement

that expresses our intentions, attitudes and feelings.

Sometimes expressed consciously and sometimes unconsciously.

Sometimes we may just have a ''gut feeling'', as in 

 ''I don't know why, but I just don't believe what he/she said.''

If someone says to you ''Trust me'' but won't look you in the eyes,

 chances are that you will not trust that person.

Simply put, when the words and the body language do not ''say''

 the same thing, we need to proceed with caution.

Open body language -> eye to eye contact, uncrossed arms and legs.

Closed body language -> no eye contact, crossed arms and legs.

For most of us, our body language is involuntary as are

 our facial micro expressions, gesticulation(gesturing) 

on the other hand, is not.

What we feel and what we are thinking

 we carry in our bodies as well as in our minds,

 but minds can't be seen, our bodies can.

If it is important to us how we come across to others, then

understanding body language can be a very helpful ''tool''.

By understanding and being aware of what kind of message/signal 

we are sending with our body language along with our words,

misunderstandings are less likely to occur and vice versa.

(Though the numbers vary, only around 10% of our communication

with others is based on words, the rest is non-verbal.)

In 1982 the first ''smiley/emoticon'' showed up and 

though I do not know this to be true, I think that as we

base our lives more and more on and through text 

communications and therefore miss out on

the non-verbals, the emojis/emoticons have come to

be our sort of ''body-language-replacements''.

(They are fun too at times, methinks.)

''Body language is a powerful tool. We had body language

before we had speech, and apparently, 80% of what you

understand in a conversation is read through the body

not the words.''

(Deborah Bull)