The Impact of Body Language on our Mind

There is an old Chinese proverb that says that the body never lies and the body never keeps quiet (Rao, 2017). While the eyes may be the window to our soul, our body may be the window to our true thoughts and feelings. Often, our words may be deceiving but our body’s gestures and signals rarely communicate incorrectly (Rao, 2017). Up 55% of the impressions we leave on people is based on our body language and only 7% are actual spoken words (Rao, 2017). Often, we are communicating much more with our bodies than we realize – both to ourselves and others. Our posture and gestures can even impact our mood and our belief in ourselves (Veenstra, Schneider, & Koole, 2017). For example, when someone is hung up over a negative experience, often their back will become more arched, their head will hang, and they will look at the ground (Veenstra, Schneider, & Koole, 2017). However, research has also found the inverse of this. If you are in a neutral or happy mood and adopt body posture that is linked to negative moods, you will begin to develop a negative emotional state yourself (Veenstra, Schneider, & Koole, 2017). This is why your body language and posture can be so powerful. You can literally change your mood just by how you sit, stand, or interact with the world.