When meeting someone for the first time,
a potential employer perhaps, does it cross
your mind what your body language is
saying about you? You face is saying one
thing when at the same time your body
may be saying another. Blanca Cobb
body language expert tells Kirsty Fedrick
how your feet may actually be telling the
biggest story.
When looking at someone’s body
language, its not just as simple as looking
at what his or her body is doing. There are
many factors that come into focus that you
need to think about when discussing what
your body is saying about you.
When you read body language it doesn’t
matter if it’s the legs, the hands or facial
expressions, you really have to get
someone’s baseline. What I mean by this,
is you have to figure out what’s normal or
what’s typical for that person, how they
normally carry themselves. This way when
there’s a change in that person’s baseline,
then its noteworthy and it captures our
attention. However, we cannot read
anyone’s mind, so that’s where questions
come in. This is the first thing you have to
think about when reading someone’s body
language. After that you have to look at
context, lets say you see a female in a bar
but she has her legs crossed, it could be that
maybe she has on a skirt, depending on the
length, the skirt could dictate whether she’s
going to close her legs or not. Another
example of context might be temperature,
if someone’s cold then more than likely
they’re going to keep their legs together.
So you have a baseline and then you have
context, which are really important. The
last thing is clusters. What this generally
means is that we are all human, we all have
our habits, so just because someone makes
one body language move, it may not mean
anything. Your interpretation is more
powerful and accurate when you analyse
two or three body language gestures at one
time. It paints a clearer picture. So once
you have spotted all three of those you can
move on to the next.
In consideration to your legs, Blanca
explains that they to are a very integral
part of your body and the indicators they
are silently giving off about you. We’re
so focused on the head and on the eyes,
but there’s so much that happens from
the neck down, that can either support
what’s coming out of our mouth, or take
away from it. If you just think of legs and
then think about a whole person, the legs
account for half your height. The legs are
super important, we have legs to walk, to
run and to jump, they’re about survival.
How even we use our legs, whether its
walking, running or skipping, they’re
sending people information. Whether your
more casual and laid back and just taking
our time, or you are in a hurry and we’ve
got to get somewhere. They communicate
so much and you never even notice.
There’s three basic positioning with legs
that we do day in and out. One is standing
with your your legs apart, shoulder
width, like Spiderman, Superwoman or
a police officer, this portrays authority,
dominance and confidence. Superheroes
are super confident or dominant people,
they’re out there saving the world. It’s
a more powerful meaning of insecurity
when you’re standing up having your legs
crossed; because most people only cross
their legs when they’re sitting down.
When you have your feet and legs
together, this gives the opposite, it can
portray professionalism, or a sign of
respect, like a soldier standing to attention.
the language of
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