Our body speaks without our permission: the keys to non-verbal language

Communication is an omnipresent phenomenon in nature. Although many times when thinking about the concept of "communicating" language and writing, these information exchange processes are just the surface of the communicative.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are always carrying out actions that are the raw material of communication, and only some of them are based on speech or the creation of texts. This happens because, put quickly, our body is always giving rise to communication, through many parts of the body.

Synergology is precisely the discipline in charge of studying the way in which our body communicates beyond our consciousness: postures, gestures, etc. It is an interesting field of work and research initiated by Philippe Turchet in the 1980s. last century, and whose object of study is, specifically, what is known as Non-Verbal Non-Conscious Language.

Let's see what are the main keys to synergology and non-verbal language.

• Related article: "The 28 types of communication and their characteristics"

Why do we communicate outside of our will?

As we anticipated, communication goes far beyond the use of language. It is only necessary to look at the rest of life forms to realize it: there is communication between many types of animals, both between members of one species and between members of different groups taxonomic. In fact, several of these life forms probably do not have any kind of self-awareness, nor what we know as voluntary actions; and yet they communicate.

What implications does this have? One of them is that communication goes ahead of consciousness. It is a basic element of life, so it should not surprise us that we are always participating in communicative interactions whether we want to or not: the strange thing would be the opposite. Instead, being aware of our own existence is almost an eccentricity, one of the most characteristic and unique aspects of the human species. Although sometimes we have the feeling that all our actions are based on our conscious will to do them, this is nothing more than a mirage.

Thus, we spontaneously and directly communicate bodily, without necessarily passing through the filter of consciousness. And in the same way, many times we receive these communicative "inputs" unconsciously. Now, that does not mean that we cannot learn to modulate and interpret these communicative elements of non-verbal language. Our body dominates unconscious communication, but our system of learning and conscious recognition of information can “eat ground”, even partially.

We will probably never have complete control of Non-Conscious Non-Verbal Language, but internalizing knowledge about it can be very useful in various contexts. And it is estimated that the basis of 55% of communication is non-verbal, and around 38% consists of paralanguage (diction, voice intonation, etc.). Only 7% of the impact of a message would really be based on pure verbal language. With this in mind, there is no doubt that a deeper understanding of this unconscious part of the language offers great potential.

• You may be interested in: "The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)"

The basics of synergology

As we have seen, the main objective of syrgology is to allow us to know (and recognize) the aspects of Non-Verbal Non-Conscious Language. To this end, this discipline has developed a universal labeling system with about 2,800 entries, which allow studying the basic elements of this non-verbal communication from a systematizing prism, as if it were an encyclopedia.

In addition, from the synergology we work from an observation protocol that has three main elements:

• The Statua: the information that the whole body emits in its entirety, such as the postures that a person adopts.
• The Inner Attitude: those behavioral elements that express the emotional state of the person at a given moment.
• Micro-movements: small nuances and details in the actions of the person that denote unexpressed emotions (or only partially expressed).

Do you want to learn more about Non-Conscious Non-Verbal Language?

If you want to know more about non-verbal language and even incorporate this knowledge into your personal life or your work, You may be interested in the online training program "The power of non-verbal communication: keys to interpreting body language". This 15-hour course is organized by the European Coaching School (EEC) and taught by Patxi Rocha del Cura, Executive Coach by the EEC, PCC by the International Coaching Federation, and Synergologist by the Institut Européen de Synergologie.

It is a program especially recommended for therapists, coach, sales representatives and personnel selection technicians, and in it it is possible to learn about such topics as interesting such as the detection of incongruities between verbal and non-verbal language, the recognition of attitudes and emotional states in the interlocutor, the adaptation from communicative processes to the "signals" sent by the person with whom we speak, and to detect open, closed, interested or disinterested communication attitudes, among others.

To know more about the course, get in touch with the European School of Coaching team.