Body Language
What is Body Language?
Body Language Video
Faces & characteristics
Business body language
General characteristics
v
Personal Space
v
Hands & Handshake
v
Legs & Walking gestures

What is body language
 Body Language is the communication of personal
feelings, emotions, thoughts through body movements either
consciously or involuntarily.
 Like any spoken language, body language has
words, sentences and punctuation.
 Each gesture is like a single word and one word may have
several different meanings.
Importance
Discover
The 93-7% theory

How body communicates…
Gestures
A gesture is the verbal or non-verbal body movement used to
express or emphasize an idea , an emotion or a state of mind.
Body Movements
This includes the head, eyes, eyebrows , lips , neck , shoulders,
fingers and so on.
Behavior
This refers quite simply , to everything we do which is overt or
observable. It is important because it is observable to others.

How body communicates…
Emotions
Refers to states such as happiness, depression & anxiety & milder
moods such as feeling of pleasure & displeasure , degrees of
excitement or drowsiness etc. A ‘Emotional cue’ is a facial
expression, body movement or tone of voice indicative of emotion.
First Impression
Faking/ Deception

Faces…
Six Universal Facial Expressions
Face is the most significant and the most photographed- part of
human body. The flashes of facial signals are generally
Happiness reactions which a person finds difficult to hide.
spontaneous Sadness Fear
Disgust Surprise Anger

Face Characteristics…
The eyes
The eyes can be steely, knowing, mocking, piercing, shifty. They
can level a burning glance, or a cold glance or a hurt glance or
again can be wise , knowing , inviting , scary , disinterested and so
on.
Mouth
 When ‘raised’ , the mouth communicates positive feelings
, happiness , optimism.
 If kept ‘straight’ to conceal emotion.
 ‘Turned down’ to express sadness, confusion , dissatisfaction.

Face Characteristics…
The Head
A nod depicts a positive signal & a ‘head- shake’ signifies ‘no’ or a
negative gesture.
Head nods show continuing attention , it also depicts what is
happening to us emotionally. Heads tilt is a signal of interest.
Eyebrows
People lower or knit their eyebrows when they show
disagreement or displeasure. Frown when in displeasure
Lips
When one does not utter a word lips can be eloquent because
silent lips express a wide range of emotions from smile to frown.

General Characteristics
Expression
Facial expressions are highly flexible & changeable. The face can
encode a variety of communicative & informative messages.
Emotions
The face is the most reliable indicator of a wide range of
emotions: Joy & happiness , fear , annoyance, surprise, anger,
sadness etc
Ways of looking
 Side long glance is referred to as stolen look.
 Blank stare depicts boredom.
 Sparkling eyes are an attribute of those who have ‘magnetic
personalities’.

Smile 
Smiling & frowning are two major facial expressions.
A genuine smile means ‘I appreciate you’; ‘I accept your ideas’.
A frown means ‘I find you puzzling’.

Personal Space
Proxemics
Personal space - is defined as the amount of space that people find
comfortable between themselves and others.
Public
Social
Personal
Intimate
Close Intimate

Hands & Handshake…
‘Human Hand is a restless organ’
The Hand
Body language involving hands is extensive. This is because hands
are such expressive parts of the body, and because hands interact
with other parts of the body.
Hands contain many more nerve connections (to the brain) than
most if not all other body parts.

Hands & Handshake…
Hands… and what the say?
 Limp hands…?
 Nervous or jittery person shows restless hands
 Clenched hands…?
 When the arms are crossed they form a ‘barrier’ to an impending
threat
 Nose rub…?
 Chin stroking is when people are in deep reflection.

Hands & Handshake…
Styles of Handshake…
Palm down thrust: signifies dominance or aggression.
Palm up position shows submission by the giver.
Both hands handshake: Convey Trustworthiness & honesty. But
is that always true?

L e g s & Wa l k i n g g e s t u r e s
Legs…
 Crossed legs…?
 The ankle lock signifies…?
 Sitting on edge of chair indicates compromise, accept or agree or
conclude.
 Rocking or swinging in chair indicates a person is in full control
of situation.

Walking...

L e g s & Wa l k i n g g e s t u r e s
Walking gestures…
Lets find out….
 Arms swinging
 Hands in pockets
 Hands on hips
 Meditative walk
 Confidence walk
 Leadership walk
 Pacing
 Swagger

 
 
 
Thank You…
. .