Of all the languages in the world, there is one universal language we don’t need to learn to understand others regardless of where we live- body language.
What story might we tell when our bodies speak their language? How can we be certain others properly interpret what we may be saying?
There are many thoughts and feelings like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and exhaustion for example that we may convey through body movements and stances.
Our bodies speak through eye responses, facial gestures, neck responses, hand and arm gestures, body gestures, and poses. Most often, we may not even recognize we are conveying our thoughts this way.
“Body language helps tell the story. It paints the picture in your mind’s eye about the non-verbals occurring in a scene alongside the five senses”. (1)
When we read someone’s gestures, how might we be certain we understand what that person is thinking? Why might this affect how we feel?
How might this influence how we react to others if we aren’t sure we comprehend the whole story? Why might this feel important?
Is it possible that what we see can have an impact on our perceptions of things? If others aren’t sure what we’re saying when they read our story through the motions we make, how might this affect them? What feels significant about this?
Mindfulness and heedfulness can be valuable tools to help us when communicating and interpreting any language. “When we develop a greater capacity for monitoring our thoughts, speech, and actions, we can catch ourselves earlier before speaking or acting in a way that causes harm.” (2)
Can we think of a time we experienced misconstruing physical signals we observed and it skewed the outcome of a circumstance?
Here is a simple real-life example. Two friends are together at one of their homes. They are working on a project upstairs and decide to take a break for a snack. One of them heads toward the top of the landing and takes the whole flight of stairs in one step! OUCH! Pain, surprise, and disorientation. Instead of running to help, the other friend bursts out laughing.
How does this make us feel?
The laughing friend instantly apologized while trying to gain composure and explained that it was an uncontrollable reflex reaction, she felt awful and then tried to help. Luckily, there was no serious injury and both laughed together as they comforted each other.
Can we think of how this situation could have been misunderstood? How was the friend heedful to avoid the misconception?
The quick thoughtful explanation of the friend who had this physical reflex reaction is one response that can leave little room for misperception.
Our impulse emotions can unintentionally be reflected in our body movements and stances.
How might we want to be more aware of how our bodies convey those automatic responses? What extra attention can we give ourselves to accomplish this?
If we feel like we’re unable to stop for “ME” time, how might this affect our body language each day?
How might these visible signals impact those around us? What might we want instead?
If we scheduled some “ME” time which could enable us to promote mindful and heedful indicators to others, how might this affect how we feel? Who else might benefit from this?
What feels important about being mindful and heedful for ourselves?
Scheduling “ME” time can provide some space necessary to consciously connect with who we want to be enabling us to more easily recognize the value of using these tools toward others.
What is something mindful we can do for ourselves today? It’s “ME” Monday®! It’s a great day to implement some new “ME” time ideas!
By implementing a “ME” Monday® routine today, we can improve our overall ROI to have a great today and determine the tomorrow we deserve!