Be Happy – Your Proper Body Language Can Do Wonders.

Sometimes unspoken actions that you do can tell a lot about you. Even, if you are doing them consciously or not. During your internship interview, you will have a face-to-face encounter with people who are already professionals in doing what they do best: assessing, criticizing and observing want to be interns like you.

If the situation is set to be like this, then you should now be aware that your body language plays quite an important role during your internship interview. This is because it can give away a lot regarding your personality. It is one way how most employers assess their interviewees. That is why you should be aware of your body language during an interview.

Body language can truly speak louder than words. Different body parts – eyes, hands, arms, legs – can be used in different gestures, with each one having several meanings. Body language is indeed a very powerful method to communicate with other people.

If you develop the art of studying and learning how to read and understand body language appropriately, it may give you three advantages: (1) ability to control the situation, (2) know what others are thinking and intend to say, and lastly, (3) know how to express without the use of words.

Through body language, you can impress other people, detect lying, and even know if somebody is flirting with you. I may place here, what gestures are usually used in certain situation and body gestures and movements that you must avoid. Even without the use of words, you can effectively send your message to another person, and that person to you. The capability to understand body language can help you identify one's moods, emotions, feelings, and desires.

The use of direct eye contact indicates interest, positive thinking, and sincerity. However, it could mean otherwise: mistrust, doubt, and suspicion. Lateral eye movements may mean the person is lying, or inspecting his surroundings making sure no one or everyone is listening. If one would try to recall or imagine something, he would tend to look upward. Looking down may indicate as a submission to an authority, guilt, or domination.

Your hand and arm gestures can also display different meanings. If you talk while facing your palm upwards, you show sincerity. You may detect anger or fury from a person with a clenched fist. And if you encounter somebody who taps or drums his fingers on a surface, he is showing feelings of nervousness or anxiety. Arms crossed across the chest is a display of defense and protection from an outer source, or simply indicate a disagreement.

There are basically two types of body language: positive and negative. Obviously, the positive types are the ones that reflect some good qualities about you. These are also the ones most employers are looking out for to give merit on your profile. However, the negative types are those movements or positions that generally reflects a poor personality.

Be Conscious, Be Positive!

Being conscious and concentrating on positive body movements can be your cutting edge during your interview. So here are some of the positive body languages that you should have when being interviewed.

The best positive body language you have is eye contact. This is vital if you are trying to express confidence and trust. However, you shouldn’t over do it, since it can sometimes construct an uncomfortable ambiance and propose over-familiarity.

Giving a firm and friendly handshake too is one of the easiest observed. When you grip too hard, you can be thought of as arrogant. But if your handshake is too limp, this usually suggests of weakness in your personality.

Another good body language would be keeping your chin up. This can be done literally and metaphorically. Try smiling with open lips along with tilting your head slightly, as to show attentiveness.

Making your palms visible is also another of the positive type. Doing this suggests to your employer your sincerity and openness. Touching your fingertips together can also convey a sense of authority.

How To Be Impressive

You can impress you boss, an interviewer, co-worker, and other people by simply showing that you are confident through your actions, such as handshakes, posture, proper use of eye contact, and hand movements.

1. When shaking hands, make sure it is firm and your palm will come in contact with the palm of the other person.
2. Make an eye contact for about two to three seconds and smile slightly.
3. Maintain a good posture. When standing up, refrain from putting your hands in your pocket or crossing your arms.
4. When you are sitting down, sit down near the edge with your back tensely straight. This indicates that you are very nervous. Do not slouch as well. Simply relax into the chair without tightening your back muscles.
5. When conversing, maintain eye contact to make an impression that you are indeed interested and attentive to what the person is saying.
6. If you are hesitant to prolong eye contact, the trick is to simply look on the bridge of the nose of the person.
7. You may use hand movements when talking. The person you are talking to will think that you really know what you are talking about.

How You Can Detect Lying

A person lying is easy to determine through his eyes. When he cannot look straight into your eyes or is frequently removing his eyes from you, it means that he is being dishonest and may be hiding something. He would also tend to touch himself unconsciously. He would scratch his forehead, cover the mouth, or rub the nose. These are signs of discomfort due to the situation of lying.

Other signs indicative of lying are sweating, fidgeting, trembling, speech errors, body stiffness, and the like. However, people nowadays are already oriented that they will be caught lying when they cannot prolong eye contact; thus they try to maintain calm and prolong eye contact to cover up their lies.

Is She or He Flirting?

The eyes can always send a signal of attraction. Intense, prolonged eye contact is one flirting signal, as well as the three-step eye contact. When one caught the eye of the other, he looks away, and then back again, it is a sure sign of attraction. Another common flirting signal that both men and women observe is smiling and preening.

Men flirt by showing their masculinity by standing tall and squaring their shoulders. Meanwhile, women love to tease by tossing their hair, licking their lips, and showing some bare skin.

You can show someone that you like him or her, and likewise, you can determine if somebody is attracted to you. The most basic and first sign of attraction is the smile; the wider the smile, the more he or she is into you. But you can also prove one's attraction by the eyes. If you are in opposite corners of a room, you could send a sign of romantic invitation by giving a lingering, soft look.

Giving a quick look and suddenly looking away, and then back to eye contact is a form of flirting and sign of interest. Looking from the eyes down to the lips and back to the eyes again also indicates romance. Other gestures can also be signs of attraction, such as if the person is facing you directly or leaning towards you.

You can also read from another person's actions if he or she is neither attracted nor interested. A hard look or glare could state “back off” louder than mouthing the words. Never taking a peek, looking away, keeping the mouth shut the entire time, turning the body away, shuffling of feet, fiddling with things, staring at people other than you, a neutral or passive expression, unfocused attention, crossing the arms, and moving away are just some of the clues that he or she is not interested to have a romantic encounter with you.

Detect Lies

You do not need to investigate to determine if somebody is being dishonest to you. All you need is knowledge in understanding body language to spot lies. The simplest way to detect lies is to simply look for signs of discomfort, anxiety, and nervousness. Inability to look directly to the eyes, fidgeting with the fingers, shuffling of the feet, sudden crossing of the arms or legs, glancing around the room, and forced smiles are the most common clues of lying.

Be Careful And Observant

To give a proper impression to a lover, boss, co-worker, friend, or even a stranger, you must know how and when to use your own body language. Be careful in making gestures; other people may misinterpret them. And likewise, observe other people's actions as well to know how to correctly react to them.

Acts of Body Language You Must Avoid

These are negative signs that you should start avoiding when interacting with somebody: looking at the watch or clock and fingernails, crossing the arms, putting the hands in the pocket, holding objects in front of you, stroking the chin, squinting, forcing a smile, placing hands on the waist, rubbing the nape, slouching, tapping the foot, and the like.

Body language can truly send signals of emotions and state of mind. One needs only to learn how to understand how one person acts in order to determine what is really going on in the mind of that person. That is the art of learning the secrets behind body language.

If you have to concentrate on your positive body languages, then you should also be aware of certain negative body language that you should avoid during an interview.

1. You should avoid crossing your arms, since this can convey defensiveness.
2. Looking down, feet tapping, head resting on your hands, and slouching are four big no-no’s, which all expresses boredom.
3. Do not let your interviewer see that you are nervous by locking your ankles, playing with your hair, fidgeting or even biting your nails.
4. You shouldn’t also show arrogance or over confidence during an interview. Being confident is good but going over board is bad. To avoid showing this, you should refrain from walking too erectly and briskly while your hands are clasped behind your head. Remember, you are in a job interview, and not at home where you can act such way.
5. Putting your hands on your hips and doing angry gestures like placing your fists on the table and pointing can show aggression, which is a really bad thing when applying for a job.
6. Lastly, avoid rubbing your nose or eyes; doing this can express doubt, which can make your interviewer feel that you are not quite sure if you really want the position or not.

Be Happy – Our Proper Body Language Can Do Wonders.