Body Language

2. Turn away for a moment. This time decide how you want to be
   perceived.
   Dominant, submissive, bored, angry, surprised? The list goes on.
   Carefully consider how you can convey that attitude by the way you
   stand and breathe, and by the look on your face.


3. Turn back towards the mirror, having adopted the image you want to
   portray.
   What do you notice? What are the differences and similarities between
   your first and second postures?

By being aware of the messages that your stance, gestures, and expressions

send out you can consciously determine how you’re perceived. With time

and practice you automatically adopt the appropriate pose for the attitude

you want to reveal.

Should you find yourself in a downbeat, miserable mood that you want to get

out of do the following:

Inhale from your abdomen.

Gently open your chest as if it were a treasured keepsake.

Allow your head to lift from the base of your neck like a balloon tied to a

string on a sunny day.

Observe your surroundings.

Continue to breathe gently, like an infant at rest.

Settle into the moment.

If I’m not mistaken, by now you have a gentle smile playing around your lips,

and the outer corners of your eyes may even be creasing with enjoyment.

It’s okay to not feel good about your body as long as you act as if you do.

Why? Because, as I tell my clients, ‘The way you act is the way you are.’ If you

act with a positive frame of mind you feel that way. People want to spend

time with you. When you enjoy yourself as you are, you make it easy for

others to be in your company. And you may even find that by acting as if you

feel good about yourself you find that you actually do.

Showing intensity of feelings ............................................................

People who are extremely agitated, exceptionally despondent, or enormously

cheerful reflect these moods, in part, by the way they hold their bodies. When

110 Part III: The Trunk: Limbs and Roots