How to communicate with body language

It is often said that in face-to-face communications, words represent less than 10% of the message they transmit to us, while body language accounts for more than half of our message. That is why it is important to know how to control the messages we send with the movement of our body, with gestures and with looks. Especially in a job interview or when you just met someone, this language becomes more evident and we have to keep an eye on what we are transmitting. In this article we tell you how to communicate with body language so you know how to control the messages you send.

Understand your own body language

While there are certain aspects of body language that can be improved to create a more effective message, you still have to act naturally and not be robotic. The important thing is to be yourself, to be natural.

Try to make a conscious effort to think about what your body is doing in different interactions with different people. A mirror can be useful to examine facial expressions and posture but, above all, what you want is to pay attention to what your body does when you are angry, nervous or happy.

Your body language is effective if it communicates the message you want to communicate. Does your body communicate confidence, or does it make you appear unsure of yourself even though your words express confidence? If the nonverbal cues match your words, not only do you communicate more clearly, you will also be known as "more charismatic". In this article we tell you how to interpret body language.

Gestures

Directing the most positive gestures towards the listener allows you to indicate more clearly that you are offering a favorable outcome for the listener. Direct the most negative gestures away from the listener (to the other side) and in this way, clearly indicate that you do not want any obstacle to get in the way of your intended message.

Use the gestures with your hands carefully. Be aware of what your hands are saying as you speak. Some hand gestures can be very effective to highlight your points (open gestures), while others can be a distraction or even offensive to some listeners and can close the conversation (closed gestures). It also helps to see the gestures with the hands of other people to learn and understand how the message reaches you. In this article we discover the meaning of hand gestures.

Maintains control over other bodily signals. Remove the lint from your clothes, scratch your nose, remove snot, for example. These small gestures add up and can muffle the effectiveness of your message.

Be aware of your audience

It tries to reflect the passion and generate empathy with the listener through the use of soft, kind and conscious facial expressions. Avoid negative facial expressions, such as frowning or raising eyebrows. Whether or not it is negative depends on the context, including the cultural context, so you must be guided by the situation.

Contact with the eyes establishes a relationship, helps convince us that you are a reliable person and show interest. During a conversation or presentation it is important to look in the eyes of the other person if possible and maintain contact for a reasonable period of time (but do not exaggerate, as much as it feels natural, about 2.4 seconds each time).

If you are in front of a meeting room, look all the members of the board in the eye. The carelessness of a single person can be taken as a bad sign and you could lose your business, admission, success, or whatever you are trying to achieve.

If you are addressing an audience, try to pause and make eye contact with a member of the audience for up to 2 seconds before resuming your speech. This helps the individual members of the audience feel personally valued.

Keep in mind that eye contact is culturally accepted. In some cultures it is considered disturbing or inappropriate. Ask or investigate in advance.