Chapter 4
Watching Facial Expressions
In This Chapter
Communicating your feelings when words are inappropriate
Recognising facial expressions that reinforce the spoken message
Masking emotions
Expressing a range of emotions
Face it. No matter what you say, if the look on your face doesn’t match the words you say, people are going to believe what they observe, not what they hear. You know that from your own experience. Someone proclaims, ‘I love you. All I want is your happiness. I’ll do anything for you.’ Sounds good to me. Only problem is that the downturned mouth, the deep vertical lines between the eyebrows and the tight jaw indicate that something’s not quite right with this scene. The words are saying one thing while the face is saying something else.
Try as you may to hide your feelings, the curl of your lip, the twinkle in your eye or the flare of your nostrils gives the game away. No matter how hard you try to control your emotions, your facial features reflect your feelings.