How Body Language Reveals Emotions and thoughts

Body language is an outward reflection of a person's emotional
condition. Each gesture or movement can be a valuable
key to an emotion a person may be feeling at the time. For
example, a man who is self-conscious about gaining weight
may tug at the fold of skin under his chin; the woman who is
aware of extra pounds on her thighs may smooth her dress
down; the person who is feeling fearful or defensive might fold
their arms or cross their legs or both; and a man talking with
a large-breasted woman may consciously avoid staring at her
breasts while, at the same time, unconsciously use groping gestures
with his hands.
The key to reading body language is being able to understand
a person's emotional condition while listening to what they are
saying and noting the circumstances under which they are
saying it. This allows you to separate fact from fiction and
reality from fantasy. In recent times, we humans have had an
obsession with the spoken word and our ability to be conversationalists.
Most people, however, are remarkably unaware of
body language signals and their impact, despite the fact that
we now know that most of the messages in any face-to-face
conversation are revealed through body signals. For example,
France's President Chirac, USA's President Ronald Reagan and
Australia's Prime Minister Bob Hawke all used their hands to
reveal the relative sizes of issues in their mind. Bob Hawke
once defended pay increases for politicians by comparing their
salaries to corporate executive salaries. He claimed that executive
salaries had risen by a huge amount and that proposed
politicians' increases were relatively smaller. Each time he
mentioned politicians' incomes, he held his hands a yard (1m)
apart. When he mentioned executive salaries, however, he held
them only a foot (30cm) apart. His hand distances revealed
that he felt politicians were getting a much better deal than he
was prepared to admit.