Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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 "Not Face" What is the face that shows you don't want to do something.

So how often do you use a "Not Face?"
This is my year of saying "Yes!" So I think I also need to be aware of not giving a "Not Face."
The 'Not Face' is a universal part of language, study suggests: Computer analysis shows how this...

Researchers have identified a single, universal facial expression that is interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion. The look proved…

www.sciencedaily.com

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/160328084915.htm
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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 "Not Face"

So how often do you use a "Not Face?"
This is my year of saying "Yes!" So I think I also need to be aware of not giving a "Not Face."

The 'Not Face' is a universal part of language, study suggests: Computer analysis shows how this...

Researchers have identified a single, universal facial expression that is interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion. The look proved…

www.sciencedaily.com

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/160328084915.htm
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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.
     

Rihanna and Drake’s body language prove they have mutual feelings for each other, expert says: ‘He is just absolutely smitten’

Rihanna and Drake’s body language prove they have mutual feelings for each other, expert says: ‘He is just absolutely smitten’

  

Sure Drake could have kissed Rihanna better, but there's no denying they've found love.

The rapper's awkward smooch with the "Kiss It Better" singer at Sunday night’s VMAs left some fans confused about their relationship status after he declared his love for her. But their mutual feelings for each other are in plain view — according to a body language expert.

"He is just absolutely smitten. He's like a little boy," said Patti Wood, an Atlanta-based specialist who has authored multiple books on the subject.

Wood said Drake's infatuation with the 28-year-old star was evident not only in the way he swayed back and forth during the speech — a clear sign of light nervousness — but also in how he delivered it.

"It was so adorable. He had really practiced that speech," Wood said. "It wasn't just words to him. He had a vocal emphasis on certain words, he knew when to pause, so what he was saying was meaningful to him."

"There was vocal variation that showed he's putting his emotions and his meaning it," she continued, adding that Drake also kept his eyes on RiRi throughout to prove he meant business. "He really felt what he was saying."

The most shocking moment of Drake's four minute speech came near the end, when he professed, "She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old."

And Rihanna subconsciously reciprocated those feelings, Wood notes.

"Her shoulders rise, and she laughs, and there's a big smile on her face as he says it," she said. "That's a very nice welcoming of it, kind of the joy of it."

Rihanna served up several particularly telling signs that indicated she was swooning after Drake's speech, as she looked back at him multiple times and raised up her chest after he handed her the award and faded into the background.

"That's happiness," Wood said of Rihanna's body movements. "That up motion of her chest and the look back is happiness. That affirms … (her prior behavior) was nervousness and anxiousness. She accepted what he said."

Drake and Rihanna have been linked together for months, but neither had commented on the swirling speculation before the rapper's apparent admission of love on Sunday.

Hours after the award show, he shared an Instagram selfie of him kissing Rihanna on the head, once again celebrating the pop star for taking home the Video Vanguard honors.

So forget about the awkward kiss, maybe Rihanna just didn't want to ruin her makeup. Or perhaps she hates a P.D.A.

 Link to Article

YouTube - Rihanna's acceptance speech

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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.

     

What I have learned when loved ones were seriously ill and or dying. Advice

What I have learned when loved ones where seriously ill and or dying. Advice

My best friend my twin soul friend died when he was 29. Nine other friends died the same year.

No one wants to gain experience in dealing with a sick and or terminally ill loved one. But, if you go

through that very painful and intimate experience you do learn ways of coping. Here is what I learned about myself when Shane was shot, Roy and other friends of mine where dying and Dominic had a stroke.

1.       When you are dealing with your grief that a loved one is dying you have to remember every single day when all you want to do is weep and stay under the covers, that you are losing one person but, the person who is dying is losing everyone they know, their home, everything object, every beautiful bit of their natural world and their own life. Their grief is huge.

2.       When people are sick you have to remember every day that they're in pain. So many of their verbal and nonverbal messages are to say to you and the world, “I hurt!” “I am in pain.” You need to communicate that you see, hear and feel their pain.” They are often unable to see feel and hear your pain, because their message is so overwhelming. I know I have tried out for the role more than once, but Martyrs are characters in books and movies, and kind of hard to be in real life.  If you feel unheard, and it’s effecting your ability to be a helpmate, communicate! A possible message.  So how about, “I know you are in great pain, I am in pain too and I know you care so please let me share my pain with you as well so we stay close.” Or “I find that I am stuffing my pain, to not burden you with it, but it is making me feel inauthentic with you when I want to us to stay our real loving selves so can I share a little bit of my pain with you?”

3.       Because they are in pain, they may be mad at God, the world and you. They may be mean, they may get mad, they may even be abusive. Don't take it personally. Don't think it reflects what they truly feel about you. Don't think it's a reflection of their lack of love. They are raging against their illness and you just happened to be the closest person to them so you get the rage.  

Roy would say to me, “Patti, you are the only one I can really get mad at, because I know that you love me. I know that you know my soul and no matter what I do you will keep on loving me anyway.” But, don't be afraid to call them on their stuff.  Just because they're sick and dying doesn't mean that they can be cruel.

4.       Embrace laughter embrace humor, embrace silliness. Embrace funny moments, embrace the joys of life and the absurdity of death and dying. When my best friend Roy was dying we laughed so very much. When he was hooked up to an IV that was his sole means of sustenance the last eight months of his life we had so many jokes about it. We used humor “tenderize” the pain. We had jokes about the Wendy's drive-through, Big Mac's, ice cream and steaks and fries coming in through the IV. Both of us where dealing with a very real reality that he would never taste and savor real food again before he died, but he could still laugh. Our laughter confirmed the fact that even as he was dying he was still living.

Illness and dying create a unique intimacy between you and your loved one, take the gifts of that intimacy and may you be supported and know that you are loved.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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.