I'm grateful for an increased openness for individuals and organisations to communicate more via video conferencing technology since the COVID-19 pandemic. For me, it opened up opportunities to work with organisations globally, from the comfort of my home and without leaving a carbon footprint from travel—both of which are important to me. For others, it opened opportunities to relocate and work from home or abroad, meet family and friends from a distance, use healthcare and coaching services from around the globe, and interview from a distance. Brilliant! On the downside, it can be incredibly ..read more

I turn down most media requests these days as I rarely have time and most requests are last minute—or ultra cheesy! I care less about dishing the dirt on someone and more about people learning; most requests ask me to dish the dirt. This week, however, I was happy and able to again work with Shona Hendley from Body + Soul magazine on the topic of voice memos. As you can tell by the title, Why I think voice memos need to become extinct, Shona isn’t a fan. What do you think of them? Comment below. I don’t mind them—within reason. Some are so long that I need to set aside time to sit down a ..read more

In this article, I combine two areas—art and nonverbal communication. If you aren’t interested in art, you can still learn about facial expressions in the first part of the article and skip the challenges. Watch the video introducing emotion and facial expression, then read on and see the diagrams to learn about facial expressions. For creatives and those who are game for a creative challenge, Part Two is a tutorial on creating an emotional expression using clay.   Expression of Happiness in Clay Expression of Sadness in Clay Expression of Fear in Clay (Unfinished)   Step 1 Facial ..read more

Video Shorts Smile to Increase Feelings of Happiness and Positivity This short video explains why we should smile to feel happy and more positive.   Approximate Video Transcription One of the things that we can do to increase feelings of positivity is to smile. Not always like a buffoon, though. There are seven universal expressions, or at least depending on whom you ask, and they are innate within all of us regardless of culture. They're connected to our core emotions, the emotions important to us in terms of survival. We know that facial expressions' purpose is to act as a signalling sy ..read more

Video Shorts Slow Breathe to Reach Your Calm State This short video explains why slow breathing and the fear response work and how to reach your calm state by slow breathing.   Approximate Video Transcript Slow breathing is one of the best things you can do to reset your calm state. So if you're feeling stressed or in the fear response, slow breathing will work to get you to feel calm again. The reason is that the exhale reduces heart rate. By breathing slowly and prolonging your exhale, your heart rate reduces. During the fear response, lots of things happen within the body–a physiologic ..read more

Video Shorts: Embodied Cognition and Contractive Body Language Your Body Language can Trigger Emotion This short video explains why we should avoid contractive behaviour to feel more powerful.   Approximate Video Transcript According to the theory of Embodied Cognition, we can do things to help us feel more powerful through body language, facial expression and voice. If you've heard of Amy Cuddy and the power pose, you probably think I'm going to say it's about being more expansive, but that's not the case. The theory was that being more expansive, being in a more powerful pose, helps us ..read more

Video Shorts: Embodied Cognition Theory and a Lower Pitch of Voice Your Voice can Trigger Emotion This short video explains how to use your voice to trigger positive feelings of power and improve the way you’re perceived.   Approximate Video Transcript Back to this Embodied Cognition theory, studies have shown that using the lower pitch of your voice helps you to feel more powerful. In one study, they gave participants a panel of text to read. Some participants read it in a higher pitch voice than usual, and others in a lower pitch voice. Then they were asked to self-report how they felt ..read more

Video Shorts: Embodied Cognition Theory and Botox Your Facial Expression can Trigger Emotion This short video explains where the most compelling evidence for the theory of Embodied Cognition comes from—Botox studies.   Approximate Video Transcript Nonverbal behaviour not only reflects the way that you feel (body language, expressions and voice, for example) but it can also trigger emotion. Some of the most compelling evidence for this theory, Embodied Cognition, comes from Botox studies. With advancements in neuroscience, we can now look into someone’s brain to see which emotions they are ..read more

In The expression of the emotions in man and animals, Darwin described women “incessantly blinking… with extraordinary rapidity”. He described the blink flurry, a rapid succession of three or more blinks occurring within a three-second window. This intriguing eye behaviour has been described under several names; it’s been called an eyelid flutter, blink burst, flicker, flickering, volleys of aftereffects, aftereffect burst, a rebound in blink rate, blinking compensation or compensatory effect. I usually refer to this behaviour as an eyelid flutter, the same name that body langua ..read more

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum Someone contacted me recently, curious about my thoughts on Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s behaviour. I hadn’t heard of him, but I did some research and discovered he’s the Fijian Attorney General, sometimes referred to as A to Z, because of his wide range of government portfolios. Sayed-Khaiyum is said to be one of Fiji’s most powerful and influential men. However, interestingly, in 2020 he was interviewed by police over allegations he was involved in two bombing attacks on political rivals in 1987. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the police interview or his public response to it, bu ..read more