Communication Through the Body

Surprisingly communication is not words alone. It is comprised of a confluence of ways of being oneself and of being together, physically and emotionally. It speaks volumes the way we approach our partner, the air we exude and whether we say anything or not, the totality of the atmosphere we create from within to the outside of ourselves.

Communication conveys a weather report of current and past emotional events. It tells how we feel beyond any words. It says where we came from, where we are and where we want to go.

Now, let us not ignore words. They also are essential in the ones we use, our tone of voice and our delivery. They are essential to make things known and to become conscious. However, we begin our lives speaking only through our body. Our basic needs for life and growth are at the start and communicating these physical and emotional needs allows us to get into life. Without them we do not survive.

But, here we focus for the moment on the non-verbal body words, the language of touch, the ways the body comments, including our silences and the physical words of our love. The non-verbal ways of communication speak volumes about our feelings, emotions, thoughts and ideas about intimacy and closeness. Non-verbally we tell our partner to be present, to listen, to treat us in a certain way. And, should we become good enough and astute enough, we can look to our partner for clues about how he or she feels. And, we can and need to look to our own body reactions for clues as well. The careful attention to body details and body signals is crucial for a viable and loving relationship based on clear communication.

We are talking here about a language that goes beyond the language of physical sex. Not to ignore sex but we also want to bring attention to the nuances of the many feelings and emotions we are able to express through our bodies. Through our physical expression we tell our partner about our love, our need to converse, our need to be close, our need to be alone for a bit, and our need to remain in contact. In fact, so many of our needs are non-verbal and non-verbally expressed that once you realize this, you will be surprised at the wealth information contained and accessible from this natural form of communication. In other words, you don’t have to do anything specific, but listen to yourself to be expressing all that you are.