Non-verbal communication such as body movements, gestures, facial expressions carry a message and meaning of our inner selves to others. Our body language expresses our attitudes or feelings without saying a word. I remember reading somewhere that 78% of communication is non verbal.

-blinks a few times, tilting her head slightly. Quirks an eyebrow as she bites her lower lip. Leans back in her chair, eyes narrowed as her lips purse. Rocks back and forth a few times, her eyes losing focus as a silly smile crosses her lips. Giggles silently, covering her mouth with both hands, her knees drawn up to her chin. Fingers tap lightly on the keys as her gaze drifts up toward the ceiling fan. Yawns widely. Drops her chin abruptly, returning her attention to the monitor, her head tilting to the side again as she scans the previous posts. Blows a puff of air out of the side of her mouth, then briskly brushes a lock of hair from her face. Scrunching up her face, her mouth puckered, sets her hand on the mouse, circling the arrow around the screen a few times before pushing it off to the side. Shimmies her shoulders a few times, head rocking back and forth to some unheard rhythm. Wriggles around in her seat, then pauses suddenly, smirking for an instant before shaking her head, chuckling softly. Her eyebrows lower, her expression becoming intent with a deep exhalation as she rereads what she has written. Nods again a few times, clenching her fists once before closing her eyes tightly and pressing the Submit button-

Even though your comment was witty, it never expressed to me how you felt, how you act etc. Also the amount of detail required to write down body language is ginormous compared to simple text. I think Crypt wants to know how you use and/or read these messages.

Posted By alysaria on 24 Feb 2010 01:05 PM

-blinks a few times, tilting her head slightly. Quirks an eyebrow as she bites her lower lip. Leans back in her chair, eyes narrowed as her lips purse. Rocks back and forth a few times, her eyes losing focus as a silly smile crosses her lips. Giggles silently, covering her mouth with both hands, her knees drawn up to her chin. Fingers tap lightly on the keys as her gaze drifts up toward the ceiling fan. Yawns widely. Drops her chin abruptly, returning her attention to the monitor, her head tilting to the side again as she scans the previous posts. Blows a puff of air out of the side of her mouth, then briskly brushes a lock of hair from her face. Scrunching up her face, her mouth puckered, sets her hand on the mouse, circling the arrow around the screen a few times before pushing it off to the side. Shimmies her shoulders a few times, head rocking back and forth to some unheard rhythm. Wriggles around in her seat, then pauses suddenly, smirking for an instant before shaking her head, chuckling softly. Her eyebrows lower, her expression becoming intent with a deep exhalation as she rereads what she has written. Nods again a few times, clenching her fists once before closing her eyes tightly and pressing the Submit button-

Interesting. This is how I read this:

"-blinks a few times, "

-- *thinking* What's this? - This is unusual.

"tilting her head slightly. "

-- a little interested - thinking

"Quirks an eyebrow as she bites her lower lip. "

-- Considered unusual possibility, reconsidering... not too sure if it will be appreciated.

"Leans back in her chair, eyes narrowed as her lips purse. "

-- Decides to think, and starts thinking in a focused way.

"Rocks back and forth a few times, her eyes losing focus as a silly smile crosses her lips. "

-- Fuzzy thinking, considering random possibilities, and not too seriously - amused by some of the ideas.

"Giggles silently, covering her mouth with both hands, her knees drawn up to her chin. "

-- Comes up with an idea she finds funny. That she's not sure that she should say. Its funny but it might not seem very amusing to the person she's saying it to, and she enters a slightly defensive posture... Not that she's not going to say it...

"Fingers tap lightly on the keys as her gaze drifts up toward the ceiling fan. "

-- Starts writing out message, based on thoughts that were already formed, and partially going with the flow of intuition, rather than being very specific.

"Yawns widely. "

-- Relaxing. Implying disinterest - or that the situation isn't very important to her. Detaching herself - mentally pulling out a little, from the situation, so she can be a bit less emotional about it.

"Drops her chin abruptly, returning her attention to the monitor, her head tilting to the side again as she scans the previous posts. "

-- Thought of something. Need to reconsider - be sure of context (and probably that what she's just written is really going to work and well received... Re-reading, considering posts)

"Blows a puff of air out of the side of her mouth, then briskly brushes a lock of hair from her face. "

-- Meh.. things seem fine. Preens a bit, increasing self-confidence, and enters a more self-confident mental state.

"Scrunching up her face, her mouth puckered, sets her hand on the mouse, circling the arrow around the screen a few times before pushing it off to the side. "

-- Telling herself that she's not too into it and doesn't really care, about what she's doing, since it can't negatively effect her. Increasing confidence/detaching a little.

-- Telling herself again that this doesn't really matter (slight defensiveness implied)

"Shimmies her shoulders a few times, head rocking back and forth to some unheard rhythm. "

-- Considering. Ready to move if decided on. Detached/distracted considering of situation..

"Wriggles around in her seat, then pauses suddenly, smirking for an instant before shaking her head, chuckling softly. "

-- Decides the amusement overrides other concerns, and she's going to do it.

"Her eyebrows lower, her expression becoming intent with a deep exhalation as she rereads what she has written. "

-- Having decided to move forward, she rereads to make sure it'll work as intended and there are no mistakes or problems

"Nods again a few times, clenching her fists once before closing her eyes tightly and pressing the Submit button-"

-- QA test passed. Not 100% sure, but I'm going to choose to act sure and focus. GO!

--

LOL.

Reading a book on reading body language will give you a base of ideas to start your understanding from. Also, you're looking for the meaning behind actions, meaning behind choice of words. Between gestures and words chosen, and how sentences are formed, you can extrapolate a decent amount of the underlying thought process.