The Ultimate Source for Understanding Yourself and others

Fear and walking slowly

I am sure that it happened before that you discovered that you walk a little slower when you feel afraid. For example before stepping into the place where you will give a presentation you might find yourself waling with a slower pace.

This reaction has a simple explanation: your subconscious mind tries to protect you from that fearful situation by preventing you from reaching it or at least by slowing you down.

Fear, Courage and body language

When you feel afraid your subconscious mind tries to find a way to protect you. Based on that fact if you were walking towards the source of your fear then your subconscious mind will try to slow you down hoping that you won't reach it.

If you think that the reaction of your subconscious mind isn't very logical then you're right! The subconscious mind doesn't care much about logic and that's just the way it operates. (Check out The rules of the subconscious mind for more information).

I am not afraid to deal with new situations!

The opposite happens when you feel confident or courageous. You will find yourself taking wide and sure steps towards your destination simply because you are not afraid of what you are moving towards.

When you feel that you are confident enough in your abilities to face anything you find in your way your subconscious mind will find no need to protect you or slow you down. This is the body language of courage.

In my book, How to make someone fall in love with you i explained how you can increase the chance of making someone fall in love with you by just modifying your body language a little.

A perfect example of this case is using the body language of courage and the body language of confidence to increase your perceived attractiveness and so make people admire you more.

Use your mind

A person could walk with wide steps if he was excited or if the weather was cold.
If you want to get correct readings while using body language then you must use your mind.

You shouldn't just look at the gesture alone but you should also understand the situation this person is going through.

Once you look at those two parameters together your body language reading accuracy will become much higher and you will get much better results.

Did that help?

More information about body language

How to deal with fears

I lack courage