Body language - why is it important to be aware of it?

Let’s start with defining what body language really is. Scientific definition is a complex of non-verbal signals that we send, both consciously and subconsciously. In other words, body language includes all our gestures, facial expressions, poses and moves.

It’s very important to be aware of it, because what our words are saying, is only about seven per cent of the whole message that other person actually gets from us.

For starters, even how one breathes, speaks and moves may reveal their mood. When someone is calm or nervous, it’s often easy to hear and see it.

But when it comes to signals sent out by our body and face themselves, even when we don’t say anything other people can understand a lot of what we think. To make things worse, they don’t even have to think about what our gestures mean-they just simply know it…

We sometimes say: “I don’t like something about him, but I don’t know what it is”.

Situations like this may happen when someone says one thing, for example “I like your idea very much”, but a grin on their face almost shouts something absolutely different, like ”Can’t you come up with something interesting?”.

To sum up, we always should be aware of our body language, so as not to get in trouble and so we could be able to say, when someone’s lying to us (for example during a job interview). It should never be underestimated and awareness can help us avoid cross-cultural mistakes.