Portrait of a Writer

Don’t lie.  Hips don’t lie.  They’ll give you away.  You think I’m joking, but I’m more of a reader than I am a writer, so my writing only serves the purpose of conjuring in vivid description the things I’ve read. To demonstrate, I’ll write about my favorite book to read: the human body. 

When Shakira whirls her hips around she is actually speaking in a universal tongue, one most commonly known as body language.  I believe body language is essential to communication, some might say it fits right under the “visual” part of the WOVE principle taught by many English professors.  If you’ve seen the music video, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.  I take that back; even if you’ve seen Shakira’s hips at work in her music video you might not have read the same meaning I did.  Of course the rhythmic gyrating of her beguiling curves under silken wraps is sexy! What matters, however, is the decryption of the situation.  Put simply, Wyclef, the male singer, states his interest in Shakira, who politely declines his gesture.  The twist is in the hips; her excited hips clearly contradict the sweet innocence in the essence of her breath.  She visually communicates her true desire.  If you haven’t seen the video and therefore can’t relate, then I’ll make it easier.

Remember that Christmas or birthday party when you put a lot of thought into getting the perfect present for someone?  He or she is about to open your gift next and you can’t help but smile in anticipation, excited to see the reaction from them when the identity of your gift is unwrapped.  Imagine them: sitting on the floor, tearing the paper, peeling it off, letting the crumpled wrap tumble to the ground; then the unwrapping slows as his or her eyes brighten with raised eyebrows and the lights of candles and bulbs are reflected in his or her eyes as a twinkling film of tears glides over gleaming eyes.  The air is still.  He or she is still.  Someone rustles about in the kitchen looking for seconds, but everyone else is paralyzed in the moment, barely hanging off the edge of their seats, gawking with inquisitive curiosity.  This is a perfect example of nonverbal communication in a common scenario.  First of all, you already gave away your own thoughts about the present with the cunning smile, as if the entire scene had already played out beforehand in your mind and you simply know that it will end in joy.  Secondly, the decrease in paper-tearing speed indicates a gradual realization of the thoughtful gift, along with the tears marking the degree of gratitude and appreciation for the gift.  Upon reading the emotions behind the tears, intrigued, the rest of the group leans closer to better understand what kind of gift could galvanize that type of body language.  What was the gift?  A journal.  A yellow journal with the title, “Yellow,” drawn onto the cover.  Coldplay has a song called, “Yellow,” that mentions a book written specifically for a significant person, “…and it was called ‘Yellow’.”  The song was playing the night of the Fourth of July; you and they stargazed on the side of a vacant, country road.  On the inside you had inscribed: “We Are Infinite,” the ending quote to the movie, Perks of Being a Wallflower, their favorite.  Now you feel empowered to have everyone else falling out of their seats to figure out what your present is and very glad that you had taken the time to put together such a thoughtful gift.  He or she rises and, while looking up from the journal to look at you, he or she laughs and you join them on foot to join in an embrace.  Awh.  Keep in mind no words have been spoken.  Surely you’ve witnessed or even experienced bodily communication like this some time in your lifetime.  Now that we’re on the same page, I can explain why I find so much delight in reading the inaudible language of the human body.

In psychology, body language plays an enormous part in “figuring people out.” In businesses, it helps evaluate your work ethic.  In public, it is the only aspect available for the audience to judge, like a free sample of an e-book that you may or may not be interested in reading.  In every situation, body language reveals the truth, like Shakira’s hips, unless you are always cognizant of your behaviors and capable of executing the appropriate bodily cues that will be read exactly as you want them to be read.  I would compare this to carefully creating a fake diary that leads to all the wrong ends and planting it where you know the authorities would come across it.  Such a case, however, is very difficult to master.  In the case of everyone else, body language is as true as truthful gets.  It is within the realm of possibility to quickly generate a falsified thought and tell a lie, but you only focus on what you say and not on how you act, which would be contradictory to your spoken claim.  To relate, let’s look at a situation where your body language reading abilities are refined and amplified: when you’re interacting with someone who has lied multiple times before.  After witnessing his or her fibs on various occasions, and perhaps even experiencing a dose of lies yourself, you acquire a sense of familiarity with his or her signals that indicate a lie has been told.  You might have a sibling, relative, or close friend that you can call out on the spot because you have so much practice with his or her particular dialect of body language.  I find it all so interesting, but in relation to my career, it is all so important. 

Communication as a whole is very important in every field, but with plans of becoming a personal trainer and registered dietician, appropriate body language is imperative.  Putting myself in the shoes of my client, I would be very skeptical of my trainer or dietician.  He might have the credentials, but how do I know I can trust him to tell me what to do?  How successful will the sessions be?  Does he even care?  As their trainer/dietician, I MUST be able to gain their trust and confidence.  I need to be a role model: energetic and enthusiastic about working with my clients, being personable enough so that they can feel comfortable about themselves with me, encouraging progress through desirable motivation.  All of it will be conveyed through my communication skills, and if I even try to pretend, my body language will tell otherwise.  In the same sense, I should be able to read their body language and also be able to reciprocate that unspoken communication with them.  For example: I may notice my client’s eyes are darting around the room as they’re trying to execute proper squats and I should be able to note the anxiety of being judged by the other gym members and act accordingly so as to help them focus on the task at hand.  At the end of a session, I will take note of certain body language and observations in a log.  Even then, I will be writing about what I read: the body.

Why do I love reading the language of the human body?  I think I enjoy the difficulty of deciphering its meaning.  Like text, the meaning of particular cues depends on the context of the situation, so it makes it that much more complex to understand.  In addition, it is an art habit of mine to have a keen eye for detail.  Being detailed in art is not so important, but it’s nice for the viewer to appreciate the fact that all of the detail as a whole creates a realistic piece in the end.  In writing, however, detail is my favorite challenge to take on; that’s why I write about body language.  It’s one thing to understand the body language, but to be able to recreate a minuscule, almost negligible, bodily cue by means of descriptive text is such a fun challenge!  When I write about it, I want to go as in depth as I can in every aspect: setting up the context with a physical surrounding, summoning the emotional vibe of the setting, including every catalyst that leads from one cue to the next, telling a story that speaks through actions rather than words, like Chaucer.  He implied entire stories mainly through the behaviors he gave his characters, refraining from dubious speech.  Take it from me, Chaucer probably invented Shakira’s music video before Shakira was even born and if hips have been telling the truth for this long, then you should be cautious of how you present yourself; paying attention to your body language now will do you wonders in the future.