Looking away and scratching somewhere when it does not even itch, we all have done these nonverbal gestures that clearly show one is uncomfortable. I have many body and facial gestures that I make when I am upset, sad, happy, irritated and uncomfortable and even ones I do not realize I am making. They range to so many different things that I do. When I am mad I walk away from situations and people heavily, meaning I stomp hard and walk fast and when I am sad I feel as if I glide through the pathways in which I walk but no matter what mood I am in I always have my head held high. While I walk with my head high I know that it says I am full of pride and this is correct, this particular body language sometimes makes people think many other things rather than having pride. I have heard it all through middle and high school that I was conceited and I thought I was too good because the way I walked on a normal day. What I failed to realize when I was younger was the other things I did like my facial gestures that made people think this. I hear that I always looked mad and never smiled, but I never knew that and I was not doing it purposely because I am a very happy person. All together those gestures made me out to be a “conceited B****” to those who did not know me.
Now that I am older I realize other people’s body language and how I pick up on them myself. I catch myself doing little gestures my friends or family do like lifting my nostrils and forehead when I do not like something, it sounds funny but the look really does portray what I now call “the ugh face”. It is so unbelievable how much can be said by a facial gesture, I have got myself into a coupled situations because of the faces I made. One time my college coach was yelling at me and I gave him the ugh face and he made me go sit down. The facial and body gestures are a bit uncontrollable they just come like a natural reaction. I try my best when dealing with body language to not come off uncomfortable because I do not want to make others uncomfortable, so I try and use my confidence and pride to pull things together when I can tell from someone else’s body language. Being able to read body language also helps to be able to control your own. I used to see a girl slouch in her chair and it always bugged me, I noticed that it showed little interest towards what was going on and I always made sure I never slouched in my seat weather I was in class or a meeting, because it gives off negativity.
Although eye contact is still a bit difficult for me to make with people I try my best do to it despite being uncomfortable. It is even more uncomfortable when people know you are uncomfortable and I do not want this to happen to me. I still walk with my head up because that is who I am, I smile to random people now and occasionally make my ugh face. My confidence and strong mind still get confused for being conceited but I am able to look past it. I try harder now to control my body language and always hope it comes off positive and not intimidating.
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I really enjoyed reading your blog this week. It is pretty interesting that we wrote about the same thing! I liked how you talked about the way you walk depending in what situation you are in. My favorite thing you said was how you stomp your feet, it really made me laugh and realize how we do things like that to express the way we feel. Just like when we were little kids and we would throw fits to show our parents we were upset about what was going on. I never realized but I am positive we all walk differently depending on the situation. I know when I am tired I tend to drag my feet and walk slowly. I never really thought about how walking could be a nonverbal gesture. I completely understand how someone can perceive another person as “bitchy” because of the way they look, walk or talk. I have never been one to hold back on what I feel. I tell people exactly how it is and I feel no need for the most part to sugar coat things. I have always had the same problem as you throughout high school. I was always nice to everyone and had lots of friends but it was funny to find out people who did not know me thought differently about me. I really liked how you ended your blog saying you would try and work on how your body language affects different people but you will not change who you are. This is GREAT!
ReplyDeleteHi Britni,
ReplyDeleteI really like your personal perspective on body language. It is very interesting how these nonverbal gestures commonly used in our daily life. Even though, our body language clearly show to other people in everyday conversation, but we did not realize the nonverbal message until they sent us a feed back. Since we live in such a political correct society, if we not carefully use our oral and nonverbal cue the right way we might sent out the wrong message and could easily offend other people. When it comes to express your feeling or listening to other, our facial expression set a really important point because it can be used to read body language. Your facial expression is somewhat sincere to their feeling. You provide a good example, when you say something sound funny you made the “ugh face”. Yes it true, when you smile or laugh to a joke or something funny, people could tell you have fake or real smile or pretended to laugh so you can make them comfortable. One could look through your eye and the way you smile. If your eye doesn’t tell that you are expressing the same feeling as your smile, then you are faking it.
Hello BHulsize,
ReplyDeleteThis week you delivered another very insightful blog. I read your blogs every week and I feel as if I know you personally. I was please with your blog because I to wrote about the non-verbal me also, although we use different gesture to portray different emotions we share one gesture in common which is to hold our head high, also caused the same reactions when it comes to how other perceive this gesture. This was a very personal perspective of yourself I and I like how you used examples of how you perceive other peoples body language. I believe with time you will get at looking people in the eye when you speak to them. Some people see it as disrespect when you do not maintain eye contact with them when you are having a conversation with them. I wouldn’t want you to give off the wrong impression or vibe, all in all you nailed this writing assignment. We all use certain types of body languages that we display when we are feeling whatever way we are feeling at that time. this is why it is important to understand or try to pay attention to the gestures/cues that are common with in your time zone as well as the one that are common around the world.