Walking on air; the happy body.

The next time that you’re nervous, scared, happy or excited pay attention to what you feel and how your body reacts. As writers we are responsible for our character’s physiological and psychological reactions to the things we put them through. Since this responsibility is seated firmly on our shoulders it’s certainly something that needs to be done properly. This relates quite closely to my earlier post about showing, not telling, as this way can we communicate effectively with the reader and also gain a greater understanding about how our character is feeling.

The first thing to note is that when people are happy they don’t just smile. A whole host of reactions take place and what I’ll primarily look into today is some of the non-verbal cues that people give when they are feeling very positive or very negative. These behaviours tend to occur when a person is specifically not trying to portray themselves in a certain way and are the kind of behaviours that affect the majority of people due to us all sharing the same limbic system. The limbic system is the bit of the brain that reacts to the world in a reflexive manner so with no thought going into it; it governs our emotional responses and its from here that signals go to other parts of the brain which then affect our physical behaviours i.e.: our body language.

So, happy people don’t just smile! I mean of course, we all know this because (hopefully) we all get happy at least once a day. When you're not in the right frame of mind though it's easy to let certain, natural behaviours wash over your head and then when you sit down to write about these normal things you kind of go; ah, uh... hmm.

When people are feeling happy, confident or excited they may become giddy and also perform ‘gravity-defying behaviours’ which are behaviours that physically elevate the body upwards. It sounds odd but we all do it all the time. This can happen in various parts of their body and, when you start noticing it, it becomes quite apparent in day to day life. A child who is excited to go to the park may skip or jump and adults may appear to be walking on air, rocking or bouncing on the balls of their feet or, when standing still, the foot may lift vertically to point the toes directly into the air. This toe pointing can happen when on the telephone after you've received some really good news because it tends to happen when you're standing still. If you do a little people-watching you can start looking out for what their toes and feet are doing - the feet are the most honest parts of the body which is partly due to us not paying much attention to them when we could be focusing on our faces and hands.

Gravity defying behaviours of the arms may include excessive gesturing, swinging them whilst walking, thrusting them into the air during celebration, waving them up high, placing them up high behind the head or embracing people widely; all of these things are the movements of those who are happy, confident and positive. Interestingly, these reactions are hardly ever observed in those with clinical depression as these bodily movements reflect the emotional state of the individual; the happier or more excited you are the more gravity defying behaviours are likely to be observed.

See how absolutely ecstatic this lady is?

To partner this consider the movements of those who are uneasy, ashamed, disappointed, insecure or upset. The shoulders and arms sink downwards, movements are restricted; hugs may be tense and the arm movement very minute. A customs inspector who worked in Arizona describes how he noticed the movements of people crossing the border when holding their bags; those who were worried about the contents of the bag, maybe something inside was dubious or of great value, tended to hold the bag closer to the body and more tightly; the arm and hand held closely to the body in a constricted, tight manner. Similarly those who are afraid of being noticed restrict their arm movements almost entirely so that they are completely frozen. Generally when your emotional state is negative in some way you tend to make yourself as small as possible with very little movement; not just when you’re hiding but when you’re directly in front of other people too, depending on how you feel.

Your character's movements need to reflect their internal state of mind and for them to do this you need to be aware of what is normal for a regular person to end up doing, even if they aren't aware of it. There are many great resources on body-language and how to read non-verbal cues for everything from dating to detecting a liar, I will however, keep posting bits about it as I find it extremely important when forming realistic interactions between characters :)