First Date Signals - Signs He Is Into You - Story For Elite Daily

I just contributed to a First Date Signals story for Elite Daily. Since my links to stories rarely make it on people's time lines, here are a few of my rough notes from what I shared.

Signs he is into you:

1. The most obvious, and not under their conscious control is pupil dilation.
2. Another is body orientation. Woman love to be face to face, so don’t think he is NOT into you if he wants to sit kitty corner or side by side, that is a guy’s signal they want to self-disclose and connect.
3. Leaning in as he says something positive or leaning in as you say something, for example, you talk about a recent loss and he says, ‘I am so sorry and leans in.’
4. Symbolic reaching - placing his arm on the table so it looks like he wants to touch your arm or hold hands. (I love this as the man is not breaking boundaries and touching, but is showing he wants to!).
5. Touching innocently which means on safe nonsexual parts of the body, like touching you lightly and briefly on the forearm.
6. He smiles big showing his upper front teeth, which men, after the age of five, only do when they are really happy!
7. Raises his eyebrows as he first sees you, he likes what he sees and he wants more of it.
8. Locks eyes and keeps looking at you, and your mouth. His eyes on your mouth means he wants to kiss you.
9. Not wanting to end the date!!! Time is a nonverbal communicator and he wants to spend more time with you.
10. Asking you what you like to do.
11. Giving you every bit of his contact information and telling you where he lives and what his place is like. He wants you to be able to reach him and he wants you to see his place!!!

Signs he is not into you:
1. Short answers to your questions
2. Looking left and right or toward the exit
3. Leaning back and staying leaned back to symbolically leave you!
4. Placing his phone between the two of you. Looking a long time at the menus, or commenting on other people who are around you, instead of focusing on you.

How can you distinguish nervousness from lack of interest.
If he is nervous you will more than likely see repeated “Comfort Cues” like touching his side or adjusting his cuff or moving the silverware as he speaks or after he speaks, showing he is nervous about how HE looks. If he does the not into cues or comfort cues while YOU are sharing something important that he should be listening to that’s a problem.

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

The Body Language Of Listening

Below is a chapter in my forthcoming book, "People Savvy."

THE BODY LANGUAGE OF LISTENING

Remember To Be Gentler

By Patti Wood, MA, Professional Speaker www.pattiwood.net

You’re sitting in the office with your customer as they talk about what they want, or the problems they are having with a product or service. You want them to know you’re listening. You know it’s important to show concern, but you’re a little tired, or they’re going on and on, or maybe they’re saying some negative things and you’re feeling defensive.

What can you do to help focus and show you are listening? What body language cues show you are listening? Just like your sixth grade teacher told you: be polite—be a gentleman or gentlewoman. You should be GENTLER with your listening by following these G-E-N-T-L-E-R tips.

Give Facial Feedback

It is so easy to zone out as a listener, but when you do, you can give a blank, open-mouthed look that resembles the face of a kid after five hours of cartoons. Just like you have to work your abs to get toned stomach muscles, you have to work your face to have toned empathetic skills. Let your facial expressions show your emotional response to the message. If they are concerned, show understanding by furrowing your brow. If they are unhappy, frown and lower your eyes. Briefly matching their facial expressions not only shows your customers you are listening, it creates the same chemicals in your brain that body language shifts are creating in theirs, and you will actually feel what they are feeling and understand them more effectively.

Eye Contact

A listener should give more eye contact than the speaker. Research suggests that if you want to have good rapport you should maintain eye-contact 60 to 70 percent of the time that someone is speaking to you. Women have been shown to be better at this than men and actually need more eye contact from listeners in order to feel comfortable in the conversation. Even research on small children shows that young boys told to converse on a topic sat side by side and talked to each other staring off into space; little girls moved their chairs to face each other and watched each other with full attention for their entire conversation. This may be because dominance is communicated by either staring or a lack of eye contact. You need to make good eye contact. Research shows that a normal business gaze focuses on the eyes and the upper forehead and in a social gaze, the listener’s gaze drops down to include the nose and the mouth.

Nod Your Head

You do not have to be a bobble head, just occasionally nod your head to show you are listening and empathetic with the speaker’s message. And here’s an added bonus – nodding releases endorphin-like chemicals into your bloodstream to make you feel good and more affable about the speaker. Similar to eye contact, men and women approach head nodding differently. Women nod their heads whether they agree with the speaker’s message or not. Men may think that you agree with them if you nod too much; be careful not to give mere “I’m listening” nods if you disagree with what a man is saying.

Turn Off Technology

We have become so accustomed to answering the phone while looking at our computers, leaving our hands on the keyboard when someone comes into our office or leaving our cell phones attached to us at all times that we forget how rude those things are. Signal your intent to really listen by turning away from your computer, letting phone calls go to voicemail, ignoring your cell phone and saying out loud, “Let me turn this off while we talk.” It’s amazing what a difference it will make in the impression you give your customer—because so few listeners take the time to be that polite.

Lean Forward

Proximity, or being physically close, signals your desire to be emotionally or physiologically close. I don’t mean get in their face, but merely lean in toward the speaker. Research shows that in a seated conversation, a backward lean communicates that you are dominant. A forward lean shows interest.

Expose Your Heart

You do not need to unbutton your shirt and show your superman “S” to show you’re listening; just make sure you turn towards the speaker. Orient the heart and upper portion of your body toward the speaker. People disclose more to listeners facing them. Even a quarter turn away signals a lack of interest and can make the speaker shut down. It also says something about your response to the message. Research shows that when people feel under attack or have low self-esteem, they protect their vulnerable heart area on their chest. Body language is a wonderfully symbolic language. To communicate you are an open, confident speaker and listener, you need to show your heart.

There are gender differences. When men are sitting directly across a table from one another, the table almost acts as a castle wall and the direct heart-to-heart message becomes a challenge, creating a feeling of competition and making them share less than they would when seated side to side.

Remove Barriers

That means take away things that block the access or view of the speaker and you. The barrier used most often is the arms. Though we have over 60 different motivations for folding our arms, speakers see any arm fold as a barrier and a cue that you are not listening. In fact, of all the different body language postures, the arm fold is the most obvious indication of a lack of interest. You actually retain 30 percent less information from the speaker when you listen with your arms crossed. So unfold your arms. In addition, move the phone, books or stacks of papers on the desk that sit between the front of your body and the speaker’s view. You can even show that you are blocking a speaker’s message by holding your beverage glass in front of your upper chest.

There is no greater gift to give to someone than your interest. Be GENTLER with your listening.

www.pattiwood.net Copyright Communication Dynamics 2005

To learn more about using body language to increase your business success contact Patti Wood at www.pattiwood.net.

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Kourtney Kardashian And Scot Disick's Body Language, How Are They As A Couple?

https://www.elitedaily.com/p/kourtney-kardashian-scott-disicks-body-language-through-the-years-shows-huge-changes-8511247

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Brain-to-brain coupling during handholding is associated with pain reduction

This has certainly been my experience with holding hands of love ones in pain.
I have written about the benifits of touch http://www.pattiwood.net/uploads/The%20touch%20deficit.pdf What is your experience with holding hands?
ww.pnas.org/content/early/2018/02/16/1703643115


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Hope Hicks And Trump Goodbye Kiss, What Did The Kiss Between Trump And Hicks Mean? Patti Wood the body language expert read for Yahoo.com

My article on Yahoo.com

Patti Wood, author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, agrees that Hicks’s hands reveal discomfort. “When we first see Hope standing next to Trump, her hands are in a ‘handcuff’ pose — close together as though she’s being shackled,” Wood tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “It’s not how confident, powerful women hold themselves.”

What’s more, after the pair first shakes hands, Hicks slaps her hand against her upper thigh. “It suggests self-flagellation, a way to rid the tension or say, ‘OK, that’s over,’” says Wood.

Other signs the relationship is complex: At the beginning of the footage, Trump points to Hicks, seemingly to direct attention to her, a move Wood calls a display of dominance. And Hicks’s hair flips,  a flirty, feminine gesture, contrasts with what’s occurring: “The destabilization of an extremely close relationship.”

More at the link below. By the way, what is it with Trump and kissing??

180103143.html https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/lifestyle/body-language-experts-think-hope-hicks-president-trumps-goodbye-kiss-180103143.html

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.