Chap 5: My body is betraying me!

    I thought this was by far one of the most interesting chapters we have ever talked about simply because it is so inherent in our everyday lives.  Yet it also so easily overlooked (and often overshadowed) by the importance society places on verbal communication and the power of words to change people's thoughts (rather than the power being seen as an overall combination of the speaker's good looks, commanding tone, engaging body language, and finally the message or content of his/her speech).  Personally I know I have a lot to improve on in terms of body language. For example, as Dr. Murray pointed out in class, my unconscious hair-touching is a funny habit that I have never noticed much but that I now realize - after reading this chapter- could also be distracting for others as they watch me talk in front of class. And subsequently this nonverbal motion could also take away from their ability to pay attention to the overall message I am trying to convey through my actual words. In addition, I notice that when I do give speeches or presentations, I never know quite what to do with my hands. I also tend to slouch a bit in my posture and not give off as confident of an aura as I would like to give off.  So little nonverbal body language aspects like these two all add up and can greatly impact other people's first impressions of me, as well as their ability to taken in what I am saying - whether it be through a large public speech, or just a one-on-one conversation.
  One of the most interesting examples of nonverbal communication and its immense power (or potential to make you cry) was a link I found while browsing the web one day. The link depicts the nonverbal exchange between two performance artists Marina Abramovic and Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) and their first reunion after many years at her silent performance exhibit "The Artist is Present" http://www.buzzfeed.com/aaronc13/the-reunion-of-these-two-artists-will-make-you-cry-40wl  (http://youtu.be/pziHssaMqj4 gives more of a background about the basis of her 3 month exhibit where hoped to make "performance becomes life itself")

  Pressing on the video on that page (http://youtu.be/XNcWRbh8wQA)

 and actually watching their entire exchange makes one really realize the power of body language and the message it can convey: so many messages were displayed in just that one look of her eye, the rapid filling of her tears, the almost whimsical tilt of his head. From just those few seconds of nonverbal communication, it really gave me chills to see how deeply you could sense their relationship (which must have been something seeing that each walked from separate ends of the Great Wall of China to meet each other when they finally agreed to end their relationship).

   In addition I really like the "mini test" on page 139 in the textbook under "Everyday Application" because it addresses many nonverbal actions that we do in everyday life but don't often realize we do.  More importantly, these unconscious actions can often convey a message to our audience based on our stance, tone, facial expression, bodily movements, self-touching movements, and more.  I feel like the fact that it addresses specific examples and brings those to our attention is good as well, because once we are aware of it, we can have more control over our body language and will know to take these nonverbal cues seriously- whether or not we are unintentionally displaying them to others who may be very sensitive to nonverbal cues, or we are on the receiving end of watching and trying to interpret someone's bodily cues to sense their true attitude towards us.