LIVING OUR LIMBIC LEGACY 51flight, or fight) and possess a pacifying system to deal with stress. We are
fortunate to have these mechanisms, not only for our own survival and suc-
cess, but also to use in assessing the sentiments and thoughts of others.
In this chapter, we also learned that (with the exception of certain
reflexes) all behavior is governed by the brain. We have examined two of
the three major “brains” within our cranial vault—the thinking neocor-
tex brain and the more automatic limbic brain—and how they differ in
terms of their roles. Both brains perform important functions. However,
for our purposes, the limbic system is more important because it is the
most honest brain—responsible for producing the most significant non-
verbal signals for determining true thoughts and feelings (Ratey, 2001,
147–242).
Now that you are familiar with the basics of how the brain reacts to
the world, you might be wondering if detecting and decoding nonverbal
behaviors is all that easy to do. This is a frequently asked question. The
answer is yes and no. Once you’ve read this book, some nonverbal body
cues will stand out. They literally scream for attention. On the other
hand, there are many aspects of body language that are more subtle and,
therefore, more difficult to spot. We will focus on both the more obvious
and the more subtle behaviors that the limbic brain elicits from the body.
In time and with practice, decoding them will become natural, like
looking both ways before you cross a busy street. This brings us to our
legs and feet, which propel us across the intersection and provide the fo-
cal point of our attention in the next chapter.