Alice works at a local department store she spends most of her day interacting
with customers and co-workers there's a lot of talking involved but there's also
another form of nonverbal communication that's being used just as often body
language body language is the process of communicating through nonverbal signals
it includes things like our posture facial expressions gestures and more the
meanings of these all vary from culture to culture but we instinctively read
body language and interpret it as some expression of moods feelings or
intentions so in Alice's case even before she speaks she may be
communicating all kinds of things to customers for example if her arms are
crossed and she's avoiding eye contact customers may not find her to be very
approachable however Alice could be in a friendly
mood even though her body language suggests otherwise
and this isn't necessarily a conscious choice that she's made this could just
be how she habitually presents herself but if Alice is aware of these habits
she can work on improving her body language changing your habits can be
difficult but if you take time to pause and check in with yourself you can start
to notice them and adjust things to become a better nonverbal communicator
this awareness can also be applied to reading others body language let's say
Alice notices that her coworker is unusually quiet as his body turned away
from her and is slouched over she may pick up that he's upset or that there's
an unspoken issue at hand depending on Alice's relationship with him she may
want to give him some space or ask if anything's wrong being aware of the
various aspects of body language can make all the difference in how people
perceive you and how you perceive them be aware of how you present yourself and
you can say a lot without speaking
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