Open body language, such as standing upright without crossing your arms or making eye contact, can send a message to others that you’re trustworthy and willing to engage in conversations.
Body language is a type of nonspeaking communication. It involves anything from eye contact to gestures and posture.
Open body language or positive body language helps to convey positive messages to others. This may be helpful in many settings, including home, school, and work.
Improving your body language often involves self-reflection, practice, and observing others.
Body language can convey both positive and negative emotions and thoughts. Open body language can convey a generally positive vibe to others around you.
Body language incorporates several different aspects, including:
- posture
- gestures
- eye contact
- facial expressions
Eye contact
Eye contact plays an important role in nonspeaking communication. It can help instill trust in others, show interest, and convey other emotions.
Lack of eye contact or frequently looking away may have the opposite effect.
Prolonged eye contact, though, may indicate aggression or get perceived as a threat.
There’s no set number of seconds that qualifies as just right, too long, or too short for eye contact. When it’s a personal judgment call.
If you feel you do not maintain eye contact well, you may want to practice for longer periods. But if you tend to stare too long, you may want to practice looking away for a few seconds before making eye contact again.
Facial expressions
Facial expressions can convey a large range of emotions to others. How you move your mouth, eyes, eyebrows, and other features can convey feelings that include:
It may also help convey trustworthiness. A
Posture
Posture also plays a role in nonspeaking communication between people.
Crossing your arms and avoiding eye contact can convey a feeling of guardedness or lack of welcome. Standing with hands at your side may be interpreted as more welcoming.
Your body can also send other subconscious or conscious signals. For example, tapping your foot or drumming your fingers may indicate impatience or boredom.
Conversely, sitting up straight, positioning your body toward a speaker, and making eye contact can indicate attentiveness and engagement with whoever is speaking.
Posture may also affect your emotional and mental well-being. In a
Researchers found that, compared to those in a slumped posture, people who engaged in an upright posture despite high stress:
- maintained self-esteem
- reduced negative mood
- increased positive mood
Body language can help convey feelings and messages to others. It can also help reveal how you are responding to your current environment.
Some evidence from an older study suggests that body language may account for up to
Body language is not the same as sign language, which is a formal language with a set of rules and complex grammatical meanings behind symbols.
Body language may be better described as sending signals to and receiving signals from others using different gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and body postures.
Universal body language
While it does not have the grammatical rules associated with sign languages, it
As a result, people may interpret the same gestures and movements differently depending on where they live and their cultural or societal norms.
One example is the “OK” sign gesture commonly used in American culture. In some cases, you may use the OK gesture with your fingers to express a sort of neutral affirmation. Or you may simply use it to say “OK” without speaking to affirm that you understand or agree with what the other person is saying.
In other cases, it may express a more sarcastic response, indicating the opposite, such as coupling the sign with saying something sarcastic like “yeah, right, OK.”
In parts of Europe, the gesture may indicate that you think the other person is nothing or of little importance. And in parts of South America, it can indicate a vulgar gesture.
Reflecting underlying emotions
Other forms of body language are more subtle but can still convey messages to those around you, such as your current mood and openness to talk with others.
For example, crossed arms and making minimal eye contact with those around you could indicate an unwillingness to have others approach you or a general defensiveness. People around you may interpret frequently crossed arms and limited eye contact as a negative form of body language.
They may feel less comfortable approaching you in social, school, or work settings, which could negatively impact your various relationships.
It’s also important to be aware of the cultural and racial stigmas surrounding body language. This awareness may help you better understand how misperceived notions of a person, based on their body language, can potentially impact their overall well-being.
Some evidence also suggests your body is trying to convey messages to you. For example, tense muscles and teeth grinding may indicate that you feel distress, stress, or other unpleasant emotions due to your current environment.
If you’re aware of how others interpret your facial expressions, posture, and gestures, you can take steps to change their perceptions.
In general, if you want to convey positive body language, consider focusing on:
- making eye contact frequently with people you’re speaking with
- sitting or standing in an upright position
- avoiding crossing your arms or legs
- smiling and nodding when listening to another talk
Communication involves other people, so you also want to pay attention to those around you. Consider the following questions when interacting with others:
- What social cues are they sending me?
- What cues am I sending them?
- Do my intentions and their reactions seem to align?
In other words, you may want to consider being flexible in your body language and adapting to those you’re talking with. This may require you to develop a deeper understanding of your emotions or emotional intelligence.
Once you have a good sense of your own emotions, you may be able to better interpret how others are feeling. This can allow you to adjust your approach to others and possibly get a better sense of the messages their body language is sending you.
For more information on understanding and interpreting body language, check out this resource.
Body language plays an important role in nonspeaking communication. It can convey messages about thoughts and feelings to others and may also affect your overall mental well-being.
Open body language, or positive body language, conveys feelings of trust and openness to others. It can also show a person you’re actively listening and engaged in what they’re saying.
You can improve your body language by practicing different open body language techniques, such as:
- smiling
- observing others
- maintaining eye contact
- learning more about your emotions
- standing or sitting in an upright posture