Will Understanding Body Language Greatly Improve our Lives?
One thing that I constantly wonder about is how many people would think differently if they actually received treatment. Many of us have been diagnosed but often don't receive any or the appropriate treatment. Treatment does not mean learning how to change yourself; instead very often we say weird things because we are nervous and do not know how to react. I was very hesitant at first when the idea of treatment came up but now I am beginning to see it differently; Basically a large part of it will be to accept myself for who I am; NT's are often very flawed; people aren't attracted to perfect people, instead they are attracted to the imperfections (or the rough edges) of others. Learning how to react in social situations will help with this a lot; also learning to have more courage and confidence will be more beneficial. I work with virtually only women; I was ready to pull my hair out thinking that I was failure but now I know that even for NT men, trying to understand women will be rather difficult. The reason is because NT women are more fluent at deciphering and communicating messages through body language than men (men of value are also fairly decent at this). Constantly being uncertain of myself is what often brings me to the point of breaking. Learning how to read others and when necessary ignore the behavior of others is key. Learning how to master our own Body language is another big one; we often do not realize the messages that we communicate through our body language; by understanding the messages that we are sending, we can change our behavior to send messages that attract others and profess confidence.
What do you think? Will understanding body language better improve social relationships for Aspies? Is understanding body language as important as understanding Verbal communication?
Tyri0n
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I would love to know what body language specifically I am misunderstanding in other people and also want to know what my body language is conveying that is not correct or appropriate. I feel like I have decent eye contact usually and sometimes maybe need to look away more (not sure) and I really believe that I understand the basics of facial expressions, but it is the more complex facial expressions and body language that I may be misinterpreting. Also for me sarcasm is not fun as I am often unsure if someone is joking or angry when they are being sarcastic so I dislike it.
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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure."
I find that not being able to read body language puts me in all kinds of jeopardy, for example I enter an establishment and begin chatting up a woman that is below my standards but I believe is a safe bet; she then blows me off. My self-esteem hits the ground because if some woman that I have no real interest in acts like this, then how will a beautiful woman behave. Interestingly I often get rejected more often by women that I don't have any real interest in that by women I am interested in. I have come to realize how absolutely useless it is to spend time talking with someone whom has very cold body language towards you. Very often we can get what we want and even who we want but we end up trying to roll the dice and get hurt. The same goes with making friends; sometimes a person may appear unreceptive towards you but their body language may say different. Men are interesting creatures as we often don't understand our own body language at all; this can make us even more volatile than females in some situations. Quality over quantity is the way I perceive body language; ones ability to assess rather than quickly execute.
Northeastern292
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