“Why do you always do that?”
This was a question from Sal the other day as we were getting ready to leave for church.
“Do what?”
Remember a few years ago when Sal made a similar comment about how I walk? When he said, “Oh! That’s why you’ve always walked funny,” well into our tenth year of marriage I learned I have “always walked funny.” 😒 (Posted about it forever ago.) I was braced for another one of those epiphanies.
“You do that thing after you get dressed. You go to the mirror and make yourself look like a mouse. You do it all the time.” 😳
“What are you talking about?!?”
He demonstrated.
I am not a skilled enough writer to depict his shift in posture with words. Please play along and physically follow along…Basically, according to Sal, I lower my head a little, bring my shoulders forward and down and bring my hands to what I would consider more of a T-rex arms placement. I make myself smaller.
And I do. I had no clue I was doing this. I’m not sure when it started. But I do, and now that Sal has enlightened me, I notice myself doing it all. The. Time.
I look at myself at the end of getting ready and I go into this stance in front of the mirror. It’s kinda this mousey small scared stance. It’s so weird.
Or is it?
I think in my mind I’m trying to look smaller, maybe dainty or something. But I’m not sure this doesn’t translate in other areas too. I may have a telling habit.
I think body language is fascinating. I love hearing research on what certain, unconscious postures reveal about our interior thoughts and feelings. Those people that are trained to tell if you are lying. Those people are amazing. The coaches that guide public speakers and performers in how they stand, use their arms, tilt their head…there’s a whole science to this.
Like most things about our unique design, how we stand or communicate physically is not all wrong or all right. There are times to strike a power pose and there are times to allow your smallness to manifest physically. We are made as physical beings, crafted through life experiences to engage with our physical reality in certain ways, and then, those stances and postures reveal something. God can raise our awareness when we get a chance to observe something we do that has been on autopilot.
Do you always have your arms crossed in social situations? Ever asked God, why?
Do you use your hands to talk? Ever considered why and how that impacts those that listen?
Every stood in front of a mirror like a mouse with t-rex arms?
Just sharing in case you would benefit from considering what your body might be telling you, or maybe telling others…