One of Diana, Princess of Wales’s most vividly remembered signature ges-
ture’s was the head lowered, eyes looking upward, now known as the Shy Di
look (see Figure 1-5).Sophie is a delightful woman in her early twenties. Pretty, vivacious, and
polite, Sophie’s signature gesture is thumb-sucking. I first noticed this gesture
when she spent several days at our home. Curled up on the couch, Sophie
slipped her right thumb into her mouth, lightly rubbing her nose with her
index finger. Claire, a woman in her forties, also sucks her thumb. Her varia-
tion on this gesture is a small piece of soft fabric that she rubs in the palm of
her cupped hand.Toby, my personal assistant, is a quiet, thoughtful, focused man. I’m highly
energetic with a mind that skips and leaps from one project to the next.
Frequently, I ask Toby to do one task, only to interrupt his concentration
by asking him to do something else, often unrelated. When Toby pats his
eyebrows with the tips of his fingers I know that the time’s come for me to
back off and let him get on with what he has to do.Figure 1-5:
A down-
ward tilted
head and
upcast
eyes looks
vulnerable
and
pleading.20 Part I: In the Beginning Was the Gesture