Our body says a lot about us in many ways as we communicate. Body movement can indicate attitudes, and feelings while also acting as illustrators and regulators. Our body movement includes the heads, eyes, shoulders, lips, eyebrows, neck, legs, arms, fingers, orientation, hands and gestures. Together these pieces can convey if we’re comfortable, unhappy, friendly, anxious, nervous and many other messages.

With so many parts conveying messages, you can see how easily things can get confused and how difficult it is to manipulate nonverbal communication. Just think of the different messages which are communicated through facing a person, touching, standing at various distances and in different stances. With careful thought, however, we may begin using our bodies to further our clarity and meaning.

This discussion has broken down body language into several areas: proxemics, appearance, eye contact, and physical behavior. We will continue by looking at each area.

Proxemics

Proxemics is the amount of space around or between us and others. How closely people position themselves to a person during a discussion communicates what type of relationship exists between the two people. This space and meaning differs from culture to culture but in American culture the following standards exist.