Continuing on my quest to understand "body language" has been quite the task. I chose "body language" thinking, first, it may be one of the easiest "body containing words" to gesture and most importantly, understand but I think I couldn't have been more wrong. Because I have children, the oldest 14 and female, body language plays a huge role in the kind of communication that is ongoing in our everyday lives. While I might try my hardest to verbally communicate, most of her answers come in only non-verbal forms...I typically get a face or a shrug, or a looks...sometimes a point with a hand or finger and sometimes just the turn of her body in a specific way...all this coming from my 14 year old.
Now that I think of it, and as I go about writing about it, I seem to overstep the boundaries of "body language" and facial expression, misconstruing the meaning of the two. While I always, always, thought the two were one in the same, it seems I've been wrong almost all of my life. I can sort of, now, see where the difference lies, however, I can still also understand how facial expression and body language can be used interchangeably to portray similar (if not the same) non-verbal meanings.
I guess if I had to chose one phrase or gesture, portrayed by body language, I think I would have to choose "I don't know." This weekend alone seemed to bring about a whole lot of "I don't knows" from all three of my children as well as from their friends that migrate in and out of our house at all hours of the day, well into the late evening. So as of now, the gesture of "I don't know" will be what I choose to use in the art of body language. If all else fails and I still cannot get it right, then maybe choosing "body art" will be more comfortable to work with.
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| Perplexed and maybe somewhat sad |
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| Always so sleepy |
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| This stinks (picking up dog poop) |
