#50 Feet, Body Language and Your Soul

Every day you are telling people more than you realize. It’s not just the words coming out of your mouth that people are reading. It’s also not your face people are relying on to know if you are telling the truth or lying. Most of what you say, whether they realize it or not, actually comes from your physicality. Knowing how to read body language will help protect yourself, and help you to know if other people are trying to deceive you or not.

21 Essential tips:

Stop blaming other people.
Stop making excuses.
Ask yourself how other people impact you.
Set goals and work towards them.
Love yourself.
What does your day look like?
Plan for and anticipate problems.
Take responsibility for your relationships.
Accepting negative emotions as part of life.
Stop chasing happiness with outside attachments.
Do what you’ll say you’ll do.
Make the lives of those around you better.
Stop complaining. “When you complain, you make yourself a victim. leave the situation, change the situation, or accept it. All else is madness.” – Eckhart Tolle
Focus on taking action. “An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.” ―Arnold Glasow.
Hang out with people who don’t bring you down16) always seek to learn.
Don’t back down from your career goals.
Travel or experience new things you’ve always wanted to try.
Be healthy.
Most importantly, accept yourself.
Be fearless.

We’ve all been trained to lie with our faces and everyone knows it. Ever since we were children our parents have told us to “Pretend to be happy,” or “Don’t make that face at me!” As a result, the first thing we learned to lie about was our expressions. That means we can’t rely on someone’s words or face to tell us what’s really going on.

On this episode of Old Souls & Seekers, Ilan continues to dive deeper into What every BODY is Saying by Joe Navarro.

Download this episode to hear more about ways you know you can trust people, and how much your own physicality can affect your emotional status.

If you’re looking at someone’s face, you won’t be able to tell if they are lying.

(click to tweet)

The Cliff Notes:

When you are in stressful situation blood is sent to the major muscles in preparation to flee.
If someone shrugs their shoulders halfway they are lying, but if they bring the shoulders all the way up they are telling the truth.
When someone lifts their shoulders slowly, it means they are trying to hide.
The clothes you wear send a message into the world – what message do you want to send?
When people hold their arms behind their back it means they don’t want to interact.
Touch affects health, mood, and longevity.
If you touch someone's upper arm, it is comforting.
Hugging people can break the ice and disarm people.
When you meet someone make sure your chest is open and your palms are showing.
When people are confident they take up more space. When they are not, they close themselves off.
Our brains focus on hands and wrists.
Video yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you don’t realize you’re doing.
If you don’t know what you do with your hands when you talk, it can have negative consequences.
If you shake people’s hands with two hands it can make you seem more dominant.
“Steepling” is only used by people who are confident.
Interlacing fingers shows someone is not confident.
When you put your thumbs in your pockets it is a low confidence display.
If you open your chest when you stand it will make you feel powerful.
People that move a lot when they are speaking are usually telling the truth.
You can understand 10,000 facial expressions.
You can’t tell if someone is lying to you by looking at their face.
If you don’t trust someone, ask yourself why.
We may miss physical cues because we’ve been taught not to stare. You need to unlearn this.
Most people are afraid to look someone in the eyes.
People only tilt their heads if they are truly comfortable.
When people “defy gravity” it means they are comfortable.
Children in the womb will close their eyes when they hear loud noises.
Children who were born blind will cover their eyes when they hear bad news.
Seeing someone with wide eyes is a good sign.
If someone looks away it means they are comfortable, not bored.
Looking downward is a sign of respect or if they are processing information.
People don’t like when you look around the room.