The Ultimate Body Language Book

arricades to block ourselves from view and chairs with backs can be used in full on assault by turning
them backwards and straddling them, putting the “boys” or “girls”, on full display. Then from the
security of our seated position we can toss verbal arrows and spears. People who sit in this way are
obviously aware of being fully clothed and most certainly wouldn’t sit this way while naked, but that’s
not the point. The point is that people continue to sit this way despite holding the evolutionary
hardwiring telling them that the way they are sitting is offensive. Someone that is defensive, on the
other hand, will use desks, walls, doors, or other barriers to protect and hide themselves rather than
flaunt. You can think of shields such as handbags or jackets like towels, objects that we use fresh out of
the shower to block our private areas from view and appropriately conceal our modesty. An excellent
example of a real life “towel” and one that is very commonly used during presentations is the podium.
Most would say that it is a great place to store our notes and an area to place the microphone, and
nothing more, but in reality it’s a place of refuge that public speakers us to escape full view of the
crowd. Only the most confident speakers who are accustomed to being exposed in front of large
audiences will move about a stage for everyone to see.
So in summary, do as any amateur public speaker is recommended to do, when in doubt, and to make
the points expressed in this book more salient, picture your targets naked!
Chapter 1 - Why The Study Of Body Language Is Important
Summary – Chapter 1
In this opening chapter we have looked at some body language primers. Hopefully you have grabbed a
hold of the frame of mind necessary to read body language. Not all reading comes naturally, but then
again, reading people is not as difficult as it can be made out to be. We have looked at how to use this
book; as not only a guide, but as a tool, an encyclopedia. It might not flow exactly in your ideal, but of
which, can be used in varying sequences and be revisited from time to time as a refresher. In fact, this
book should be revisited again and again. You will be surprised just how much you pick up the second
and third time around!
We have learned that it is the first four minutes that often dictate life-long impression we have with
others, how fortune tellers are like horses, how to read someone cold, how the mind mirrors through its
neurons and the body and brain are linked, the vital importance of the limbic systems and how it is
paramount in creating honest body language, and what it really means to read people. We also covered
the difference between “OK” types and “Not OK” types as well as introverted versus extroverted, and
how this can affect body language. From there it became more obvious to understand how to get the
desired results with our new tools and how it can be difficult to fake body language due to
microexpressions. Finally, we advanced a ‘fail safe’ technique which implied that looking at people as
if they were nude can tell us a lot about body language and helps make reading a more common sense
practice.