Your body language conveys more than your words do. How you hold yourself, your mannerisms, conduct, and even how you breathe. With a little conscious effort to improve your body language, you stand a better chance of scoring that job, that date, or simply being seen as the engaging and genuine person that you are. Below are seven tips to help you improve your body language-
1. Have eye contact, but don’t stare
Keeping too much eye-contact might creep people out. Giving no eye-contact might make you seem insecure. If you are not used to keeping eye-contact it might feel a little hard or scary in the beginning but keep working on it in the mirror or with a friend and you’ll get used to it.
2. Don’t cross your arms or legs
You shouldn’t cross your arms as it might make you seem defensive or guarded. This goes for your legs too. Keep your arms and legs open.
3. Relax your shoulders
When you feel tense it’s easily winds up as tension in your shoulders. They might move up and forward a bit. Try to relax. Try to loosen up by shaking the shoulders a bit and move them back slightly.
4. Don’t slouch, sit up straight
Dont slouch, you should always sit up straight as it can make it seems you are intimidated by the person. Not only does sitting up straight convey confidence, studies have shown that it will make you feel more like a leader
5. Smile and laugh
Lighten up, don’t take yourself too seriously. Relax a bit, smile and laugh when someone says something funny. People will be a lot more inclined to listen to you if you seem to be a positive person.
6. Don’t touch your face
It might make you seem nervous and can be distracting for the listeners or the people in the conversation.
7. Keep your head up
Don’t keep your eyes on the ground, it might make you seem insecure and a bit lost. Keep your head up straight and your eyes towards the horizon.