Reading Body Language

Being able to read and intuit meaning in body language is absolutely key to situational awareness, and Predicting and Preventing high risk scenarios. We all know how to do it, we read body language every day. Yet, it feels like a mentalist trick or some form of psychic woo-woo when people can make predictions off of the way someone moves or emotes. I’m not on the level of a mentalist but these are some of my tricks to make reading body language more reliable.

1. Subconscious to Conscious Reading

              We subconsciously read body language and act on our insights throughout every interaction. You have a lifetime of data sitting in your head that needs to get tapped into the conscious level. It’s as easy as taking note every time you have a knee-jerk reaction or a “feeling” about someone, whether positive or negative. Then ask yourself, why do I feel this way? What did their face look like, how did they move their hands, how are their feet positioned? Do I think they’re contradicting themselves or being truly genuine through their body language? With enough practice you’ll ideally be able to clearly articulate why you trust or distrust, view someone negatively or positively in the moment.

2. Turning Assumptions into Predictions

              Another thing most of us do subconsciously or out of habit is make assumptions. I broadly agree with the old adage “Making assumptions makes an ass out of you and me”. So, this next step can be tricky to navigate. You start by taking the conscious acknowledgements of people’s body language and give yourself a hypothesis for how they will react throughout the interaction. This is primarily to reaffirm and fine tune how you read body language. If your predictions are unreliable, then you need to tear down and rebuild the way you view certain body language. If done with enough practice, you can start doing this on the fly. Creating a character profile of sorts for any new individual you meet in moments. Within a given culture specific body language can mean different things, and everyone has their own quirks that will throw off how you read them. Regularly testing your own assumptions helps you adapt to these novelties.

3. Applying What You Learned

              That’s pretty much it. Now you just need to create the habit and keep testing yourself. Focusing on developing these skills can be a conversation killer if you’re too single minded about it. Try just giving yourself check-in moments. Spur yourself to track and catalogue people’s behavior. Play guessing games with people. Have them hold a number between 1-10 and try to guess the number by saying 1-10 out loud and watching their facial expressions. Once you re-develop your understanding of body language, it will meld together with your subconscious practices and be even easier. Helping you predict how people will react in more heated scenarios.

Reach out if you would like a tailored lesson plan to redevelop how you read body language.