Yippee, I got the go ahead to share my good news with you! I've been working on a script for a TED-Ed animation and it's finally coming to fruition. The TED-Ed team have brought in the director, animator and narrator/actor to work their magic and bring it to life. This is a huge thrill for me, since I've been a TED obsessive for years. My TED-Ed lesson animation is about emotional expression– universal expressions, so over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some supporting information on the subject on my blog. 

If you aren't already familiar with TED-Ed animations, here's one by Peter Mende-Siedlecki, I think you may find it interesting- it's about first impressions, which are incredibly important for setting us up for successful interactions. It's less than 5 minutes long. 

I've been quiet on my blog for a while now because I lost my beautiful mother in May. I've wanted to share with you some observations during my experience of loss– of emotion and nonverbal expression– I'm finally ready to write about it. I'm not sharing my experience of loss as such, but what I want to do here is mention some behaviours that felt noteworthy, illustrating some of the nonverbal cues that I usually write about. 

It was sudden and unexpected, so much so, that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Living on the other side of the world, I hadn't seen my mum for over two years. I was 'greeted' at the airport by my sister, who reluctantly stepped forth from behind her partner, his body temporarily and unknowingly shielding her from what she had to do. They were waiting right at the very back of the crowd, distancing themselves from the reality of what she was about to disclose.

When we experience emotions we feel physical sensations within our body. Have you ever stopped in the moment of an emotion, to evaluate what you are feeling? And where that feeling is? In an emotion, our brain triggers physiological changes within our body. These changes alter our autonomic processes (processes we don't consciously control), such as heart rate, breathing, sweating and blink rate. In turn these physiological changes create physical feelings, or sensations, within our body. We associate these physical feelings with the emotion. Researchers at Aalto University have created visual bodily maps of emotions, based on self reported bodily sensations, experienced when an emotion was triggered. The results were gathered from 701 participants from around the world. 

Are you affected by other people’s emotions? Watch a short video that explains one of the reasons why emotions are so contagious and why we love hanging out with happy people.

Sonia's true emotions were of course revealed through her body language. Without a shadow of doubt, she expressed genuine sadness. Absolutely no fakery involved. She was, in fact, battling to suppress this emotion, probably to avoid tears. The sadness expression climaxed as she spoke the words, "I saw the image of a baby, covered in a plastic sheet, with a doll lying beside her, and it rocked me to the very core".

While verbal communication may conceal emotion, nonverbal behaviours can give away the secrets of the emotional state of others, acting as a gauge of positive and negative emotion. When we experience positive emotion, various parts of our body defy gravity pointing upwards.