How to Understand Body Language - Essay Example

Depending on the type of body language incorporated a certain image of you is placed on those around you, especially people you have been used to like co-workers, for example, wearing a smiling face in front of co-workers communicates that something good has happened to you and you are about to share a joyous story, while a cruel face will send an opposite signal. However, your personality or character as known to co-workers will add a lot to your sign language, a person who is always a joker might be mistaken since sometimes seriousness in his face accompanied by a serious comment can be outdone by the previous jokes to the audience. Moreover, occupation is a very critical consideration in determining the effect of sign language. For instance, a nurse might say that a patient is recovering verbally but post a sign to his colleague that the patient is worsening (Kennedy, 2009).

To a patient, body language sends the most effective message and thus one has to be very careful when handling them. While encouraging a patient it's important to avoid putting on a worried face since this might make him think that he is worse off. Because misinterpretation of body language might affect a patient psychologically, a speaker should avoid any ambiguous signs. While answering questions it’s important to always take time and avoid any emotional reaction that could send a different signal. Understanding their body language helps also affect your communication. In any situation where the patient provides a message verbally that strongly contradicts the body movements mostly the facial expression, one should base his response mostly on the body sign. This helps the patient feel cared for and apart from comforting him it would help him open up for better treatment.

More than fifty percent of messages in any conversation are sent verbally and thus several signs have been accepted conventionally to represent certain messages. One does need to be coached on how to use most of these signs as nature defines them. Yawning, a glance sideways during a conversation shows that one is bored, tired, has lost interest, or even becomes impatient with the current speaker (Bricker, Langais, & Miller, 2001). Staring at one place accompanied by a deep breath may indicate anxiety and in some, fatigue or even depression. However, as we talk about these signs we should also understand that they slightly vary from one individual to another. An aged person will tend to close their eyes in pain whilst a child will shed tears. Although shedding tears indicates pain, the African culture does not allow men to cry in public, not to mention other interruptions to the expected body signs. The list of body signs used for communication is endless and without signs, language communication isn’t effective. Thus, it’s useful to understand sign language to understand their feeling.