Covert Metaphor

 I’ve been told often by people that I can be intimidating when they first meet me. At times I pick up on some uneasiness, but I never put too much thought into it. That is until I started studying body language and non-verbal communication.

I meditate quite often, and so I am rather calm in most situations. I speak only when I feel I have something important to say. My movements and gestures are usually kept to a minimum unless I am creating rapport and doing a bit of mirroring, but for the most part it is very easy for me to keep very still for hours on end.

According to many studies on non-verbal communication and body language, people rate the power and status of a person based on how many gestures they make. The less physical movement signifies more power.

The problem begins when you try to remain still, but feel very self-conscious. You may be able to keep your body still for the most part, but that doesn’t change the fact that your face has over 90 muscles, 30 of which express emotion. If I can read your facial microexpression (which last less than a quarter of a second), I will be able to identify what you are really feeling even if you managed to hide it. Less than a quarter of a second is all I need. Don’t worry though. This skill took a lot of practice to develop. You’ll be safe around most people.

So, next time you are in a social or business situation, pay close attention to your facial muscles. You can become very good at recognizing your unconscious microexpressions. After some practice you will be able to identify the emotion related to the expression. Then it becomes only natural when you notice the same expressions on other people.

Paul Ekman, author of the excellent book Emotions Revealed, has created some very useful software that will flash microexpressions of different faces on the screen, which increasingly become more difficult to recognize as you answer correctly. It is fairly priced and I highly recommend his book and this software if you are interested in this sort of thing.

admin :: Jul.16.2007 :: body language :: 11 Comments »