Understanding Body Language

(Part 1)

Body Language vs. Verbal Language

Are you frustrated by lies - white or otherwise? Deliberately misrepresented information, concealed emotions, and hidden motives wreck havoc on daily conversations as well as on critical business negotiations.

Most individuals cannot detect poisoned facts smothered with silken words and laced with an impressive vocal tone. Well-placed words hide duplicity so well that even average individuals get away with it.

Concealing fabrications with words is easy. No doubt, even a child can do it. For the layman, trying to detect lies by analyzing the words that carry them is futile. Judging the validity of a statement based on the sentence structure cannot yield much unless one wields background knowledge of the topic in question.

But while verbal language can hide the truth, body language cannot. Note how our speech is peppered with colorful speech like


- Recoil in anger
- Grit his teeth
- Freeze with terror
- Tremble with rage
- Shudder with fear.

The body conveys how a person feels. Someone doesn't say "I'm shaking in fear". His body does this automatically to convey that he is indeed afraid. The body reveals more than such obvious emotions, however. It does much more.

Body language. It is the final barometer of the truth. It bares and reveals innermost thoughts. Anyone can tell a tall tale in a flat tone and appear credible. The tongue is so glib it can make the most outrageous appear factual.

The body is not as endowed in trickery, however. Your tongue may say one thing, and your body may say the exact opposite. It very rarely lies. Studying the body can identify whether an individual believes in what he utters. It also reveals how he may feel at the moment. In fact, it lays before you an entire range of emotions unconveyed by his faculty of speech.

But understanding body language does more than help identify the current mental state of others. Expert knowledge of this nonverbal form of communication empowers you to project any image desired. This is where its study becomes so invaluable. Body language helps set the
appropriate environment to persuasion.

A master uses body language to subliminally influence his prospects. He creates irresistible messages that subconsciously persuade and control. Through special gestures, he communicates in a very subtle, yet forceful way. By combining verbal persuasion with subtle non-verbal persuasion, compliance becomes all too easy to obtain.

Body language can identify you as calm, confident, and credible. Just as easily, it can reveal you to be shaky, unstable and questionable. The objective is to use body language that identifies you as cooperative, likeable, charming and authoritative.

Related Articles:

+ Understanding Body Language (Part 2)
+ Understanding Body Language (Part 3)
+ Understanding Body Language (Part 4)

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