Fifth Stone – Body Language

Heimdall

The guardian of the Gods and the Bifrost Bridge, the only link between Asgard and the realm of men. He is glorified as much as he is feared, for it is when he blows the Gjallarhorn that Ragnarök is upon us. His duty is so monumental, that he denies sleep. His body has been honed towards detecting the onset of the end of the world, for he can hear the grass grow, and the leaf fall. For he is the greatest of gods, the one who shall slay Loki.

Body Language

This is one of the most important subjects I have covered thus far. You can have three eyes, a life consisting of shelling peas and selling fruit, and a giant dildo hot glued to your forehead, and still open yourself to potential social success JUST because of good body language. However, this is one of the most intricate traits to have, and few people have a good sense of how their body portrays their nature. Well what exactly is body language? You know I should make a dictionary…hmm..anyways. Body language is your physical expression of your subconscious and conscious state. It is a collective term for using body movements, gestures, and facial expressions to communicate with other humans. Whether you’re angry, bored, or a closet homosexual, it will come out in your body language. Why is this important socially? You know, I like you guys. You never ask a wrong question. Studies have shown that nonverbal communication accounts for 50-65% of all human communication, and our goal is to master the communication arena. If you can control what your body language portrays, you can teach yourself how not to physically tear yourself down in others’ eyes. So, how do we interpret body language? Well Mr.Subconscious has been overworking himself all of our lives. He’s memorized subtle patterns and changes for every personality type you’ve come into contact with. With each of those, he has compared and contrasted them to categorize each subtle movement, every gesture, and sound into a general state of mind. Every time you meet those same traits in another person, your subconscious automatically assigns that person with a personality type. This does a number of things. One, it changes your opinion of that person. Those girls that are “out of your league”, those guys that seem to own the campus, the kid that looks like he doesn’t give a shit about anything – You could never talk to any of these people and have a somewhat accurate gauge of their personality types simply from how they carry themselves. So what can we reason? That people do the same thing for me..? Fuck yeah they do.

Traits

So what personality and subconscious state do I portray? Well this requires a bit of research. A lot of guys don’t know it but they physically show that they are uncomfortable around other people, at unease in social settings like dances or parties, or even nervous and unwilling to talk to a certain guy or girl. A good body language shows your social dominance. It promotes your status, or how far up the ladder you are in everyone’s eyes. It puts you closer and closer to the point where you are no longer out of anyone’s “league”. First we’ll deal with bad body language. Bad body language shows that your unconfident and uncomfortable in you own skin. As you know from the First Stone, this completely goes against what others are attracted to.

Bad body language traits:

• Folded arms and folded legs. Crossing legs at the ankles. Sitting or standing.
• Fiddling constantly, shrugging, or fidgeting while you talk
• Inability to hold eye contact or looking down
• Slouching
• Constantly looking around
• Hiding your hands (In pockets, sitting on them, in between legs, etc.)
• Head slumped forward with spine curved, folding into yourself
• Looking down
• Touching your face
• Speech fast, monotoned, quiet or too high pitched

These show a myriad of unfavorable states of mind such as nervousness, frustration, unconfidence, and even dishonesty. We want traits that portray good qualities instead, such as confidence, comfortableness, and even strength.

Good body language traits include:

• Straightened back and neck, with head straight forward.
• Shoulders square, relaxed, and rolled back.
• Strong, firm handshake
• Hands are always serving purpose – hand gestures, touching others, enhancing your words
• Changing facial expressions to match your words (Happy face for happy words)
• Taking up space
• Accepting attention, or not shying/hiding from the eyes/interests of others
• Both feet flat on the floor at least shoulder width apart – standing and sitting
• Looking at, or slightly above, the horizon when walking.
• Chest out and exposed. Puffed.
• Relaxed and calm
• Quick, long strides.
• Slow movements, such as when someone calls name. Head and body turns slowly, not snapping to attention.
• Speech slow, deep, loud, and strong from the belly.

Confident Demeanor

Here’s a small clip from Superman to give you an example of how body language really affects the way you appear.

Notice how Clark Kent changes as Lois makes her way to the bathroom. Restart the clip and pause right at the beginning. Notice his head and eyes are down, a nervous/uncomfortable look on his face, his spine curved, chest withdrawn, and arms nervously down by his side. He looks as if he’s a child that’s just been scolded by his mother. Then you see him make the transformation as the glasses come off. He straightens up his spine, neck, shoulders, and head to show he is 3 inches taller. A confident grin stretches across his now masculine face. His shoulders are relaxed, lower it seems. When he takes in that deep breath, it comes from deep down in the gut, and his voice comes up as masculine, strong, and commanding. Ever wonder why an old guy like George Clooney is so sexy to so many women? Just watch how he holds himself.

Your confident look can even transfer to other feels like amused. Notice this overly “relaxed” type confidence George Clooney portrays in this clip, as if this is just another day in the life of a god. Compare it to the professional, confident demeanor Matt Damon has. Both show they are extremely comfortable in their settings. However they are portraying it in two different ways.

The Real

Body language portrays your feelings, your comfort, your confidence, your self in short. Body language not only portrays how you think, but it affects how you think as well. You’ve been recording these languages, attributing them towards others’ personalities. However, when you start to use certain body languages, your subconscious begins to change your mood as well. For example, cross your arms and slump over. Point your head and eyes downward, and then try to describe the feeling you get. It really isn’t good is it? Now straighten up, point your head and eyes straight. Spread your legs and feet apart and make your body as long as you can, straight up. Notice how you breathe easier and may even feel better? Use these to your advantage to show yourself as the master of your surroundings and soon you will become so.

The Fifth Stone – Body Language

To become a true master of the social environment, people must see that you are in control of yourself and your surroundings. The way you carry yourself can mean the difference between being that “creepy, weird” kid to that “sexy, mysterious” guy. Body languages is one of the hardest things to apply, because you have to literally fight with your subconscious. You will constantly see your bad traits popping up, and it will take time before you can truly subdue them. But when you do, you will finally have the confidence in yourself to be truly comfortable in your own skin. Your aura of peace, fun, confidence, etc. will put people at ease. It will make them feel comfortable around you, and that makes dominating the social scene that much easier.

Plains of Asgard

This one is going to take time, and a lot of work if you want to really apply it.

• Study different types of body language, and how you feel about each one. Sit down with a few movies and try to pick out the different personalities and traits in some of the characters. Find a nervous character and describe his/her body language. Find a confident character and write down his/her body language and describe what that body language seems to represent.
• Notice the body language around you. Watch certain group interactions and 1 on 1 conversations. Study how people portray their emotions with their bodies.
• Learn to use your hands to talk. This is extremely important when you want to enhance your conversation. It will keep the listener half-way interested, along with most of their attention on you. It animates you.
• Try to apply “confident” traits stated above. Be vigilant and make sure that when you start slipping, you can notice and correct it. This takes awhile to internalize, so stick with it.