Body Language

Manuel Stahl
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read

There is a saying that “the body can not lie”. While not perfectly true, there is a lot of truth in that statement. Research has shown that humans lie an awful lot each day, and that is also necessary for society to function.

But, lying costs energy, and as every organism tries to conserve energy, there is a natural desire to make up for our lies by showing the truth in a codified way, usually hoping it will not be noticed. This also explains why trying to understand body language is worth our time, because it gives us a means to see through each other’s lies, and without being able to so, how can we ever know whom to trust?

However , it is possible to lie with our body language as well. It is just not easy, and not healthy to do so. You can imagine bodily honesty as a valve for a kettle under pressure, and by closing that valve you increase the pressure in a way where it will seek another means to escape.

So, the advanced way to combine caring for your health, navigating society and conserving your energy is to get creative in your means of telling or showing truth, so that either people do not notice when you show negative feelings, or they can relate because they have similar feelings themselves. If nothing else, one thing that accomplishes is making life a lot more interesting.

So how do you go about getting creative with body language? There are several ways, some formalized, others less so. But while you are not familiar with it, you may want a context where you can experiment freely without fearing repercussions, and for that, partner dancing is a great way to start. But of course, that is a superficial activity with a lot of acting involved, so in order to improve the depth or quality of perception, you may want to talk to the people you interact with nonverbally as well.

One thing that ties into body language is identity politics, a concept that has become increasingly popular in recent years. The basic idea is not that different from tribalism, actually, meaning that you are “responsible” for the gender, race or whatever you were born as. It is obviously bullshit in one way, because nobody chooses these things, but not complete bullshit either as long as you live in a society that rewards certain body types and condemns others. But, when everybody and their mother claims that stereotypes are something we want to get rid of, you have to wonder why so much effort is spent on researching these subjects, with the obvious answer being there is money to be made from that activity.

But I am not going to go into detail about that precisely because everybody else is doing that already.

Let me just say that dealing with body language for a prolonged period of time carries the danger of becoming a pretty superficial person. So, in case you are unfamiliar with it, congratulations on heading off into territory that is new to you. But if you are rather experienced with it already, chances are you will learn more in other subjects or walks of life.

Additionally to perceiving subconscious thoughts in yourself, being conscious of your body also creates a situational consciousness. There are micro-organisms that lack detailed means of communicating by themselves but are able to have complex communication as a collective identity. Usually humans consider themselves too advanced for phenomena like that, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do it. So, if you ever get bored, for example, paying attention to your surroundings can easily be as interesting as all of the pre-produced entertainment that is being thrown around. And who knows, maybe you will get stranded on a lonely island, or civilisation will collapse… it never hurts to have a lowtech fallback strategy.

In a certain way, our body is everything we can be. There is a notion of ownership defining us as persons, but that definition depends on the consistency of society and situation, which can work out very well, but also occasionally does not. So, paying attention to our body is a means to ensure our way of perceiving the world remains self-reliant. The moment we give that up for an idea of perceiving more, often in hope of earning more from information that somehow is considered more valuable we also bind ourselves to this technology and establish a certain dependency.

Of course, dependency does not have to be a bad thing. After all, we are depending on air, food and sleep for all our lives — nothing unhealthy about that. But while our body is built in a way it never forgets these needs even in an unconscious state, this does not work with other, artificial needs we attach ourselves to. So when we give in to these needs we should try to remain conscious of that decision. Otherwise, we become an accident waiting to happen.

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