Why do you think body language is important?

Body Language involves a complete set of non-verbal communication procedures followed by people to express their behaviour through physical, facial, posture gesture or feelings. It is a common human trait that can be noticed in day to day activities. We all have a distinct body language of our own. Depending on what kind of body language we portray we get an impression by various individuals for the same. This clearly points out that Body Language is an important factor in our day to day operations. Considering the traits, it creates an impression on how we deal with a particular situation. No doubt it is a mixture of interpretations involving different human body language. The scientific term described for portraying various body language is termed as Kinesis.

Actions speak more than a word. This is enough to remind us that our body language will create an impression that will be interpreted by the onlooker at the first place. Body language makes up most of the emotions we express without much use of words. Some of the things which we don’t intend to speak can be well expressed by our body language. We can stop someone from uttering unpleasant words just by turning our hands over palms to the person’s face. We can shake our head when we agree on something without having to speak a word. This is the power of the Kinesis which we use in our everyday procedures to cope up with a variety of problems without even uttering a single sentence.

Fundamentally body language is considered to be an involuntary and unconscious phenomena that add a lot to non-lexical communication. The use of body language has been increasingly used commercially and in workplaces. There is a large volume of books written where one can improve his/her body language so as to have a benefit in several scenarios.

JUDGEMENT - Body Language can help judge a person's whole personality of whether he/she is lying or telling the truth. Often a person who is not willing, to tell the truth, avoids eye contact with the speaker. They have a conscience which makes them weak in seeing directly to the confronted person. At times people who are not telling the truth may constantly clear their throat or stammer indicating that there is no valid explanation to the words spoken by him/her. Foot Tapping, bouncing or even blushing indicates a person’s awkwardness in carrying the conversation further.

EXPRESSING FEELINGS - Body language is the best way to express our feelings without even using verbal ways of communication. The particular body language of a person helps to describe whether he/she is comfortable with the atmosphere or is unhappy with it. At the business and corporate levels, this criterion is used by the managers and the leader to ascertain whether a person is happy working in the office or not. At times this also helps in establishing the best employee suited to handle a particular task. If the person shows a sign that he/she is not comfortable with the task given to him/her, another employee is appointed to fulfil the task. Thus, body language proves to be a turning point in achieving tasks.

SOCIALISING - In socialisation body language is considered as the most important factor to judge whether a person is actually interested in the circle or not. Friends judge each other’s body language and can indicate if the other one is paying attention or just ignoring the talks. Leaning forward to listen indicates that the person is actually interested in the talks and improves the conversation. On the other hand, the complete opposite happens if someone just leans back in the midst of a discussion. This gives a feeling that he/she is not really interested in listening to the words of the speaker. Eye contact also creates an impression whether or not a person is interested in talks. Avoiding eye contact while listening creates a negative impact of the speaker establishing a fact that he/she is not interested.

LANGUAGE BARRIERS - Body language can b used as a technique in the process of second language acquisition. It is the process involving scientific discipline of using a second language. Everyone is not capable of verbal language communication. The less privileged people of the society often rely on non-verbal communication to carry out tasks. This is greatly enhanced by a person’s body language. Here, the importance of body language with respect to verbal language is used greatly increasing and eliminating equivocation and redundancy in comprehensions. Many researchers suggest to limit the use of verbal communications and increase second language communication through body language to improve communication skills with the less privileged persons.

Body language can also be used in several teaching aspects like guiding a student or just giving him/her a hint towards the right answer. Body language is also witnessed a lot in law enforcement areas. Numerous law enforcement organisations rely on body language to catch criminals. The application of body language goes both ways in case of a cop and a criminal. Both exhibit a series of body language traits that makes the other person presume the actions.

No doubt body language creates an enormous effect in various fields. Some Body Languages are obvious while some are not so easy to understand. But it is the Body Language that makes an impression on the onlooker without much use of words. Although Body Language is the part of communication that needs more detailed research, still it creates apt decisions to judge a particular person without even using words.