We all know that when people are talking to you, you’ll be receiving a disproportionate amount of information that’s about them. This information is going to create a lot of new associations about you that will be hidden from you, but you’ll pick it up from their body language and their tone of voice.

_{Photo by Andre Furtado}

1. When people smile, they’re really indicating a positive feeling.

If they do smile, you might be able to pick up on the message that they’re feeling nice about you. If they do a little half smile, then they’re not feeling very happy about you at all.

There are different kinds of smiles that you might encounter in a conversation. A little half smile indicates that a person is hoping to see you again. A big smile is also good, but it also implies that the person is thinking about what’s coming next.

The next thing you might pick up on is when someone’s breathing becomes a little quicker when they’re talking to you. When someone breathes hard, it means they’re nervous and they’re thinking about their next sentence.

A deeper, longer breath means they’re excited about you, and they’re really looking forward to getting to know you. All of these are ways that you can use the hidden information you’re getting from their body language to tell the other person what you’re feeling.

_{Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash}

2. When people look away, they’re really expressing an interest in someone else.

The person is showing interest in you, so that you can do something about it. It’s pretty much the opposite of when a person looks at someone else to see if they can see if they have something.

The person’s looking away when they’re thinking about what they want to say to you.

3. When people are looking down, they’re feeling guilty about something.

In this case, the person is worrying about an appointment, or maybe thinking about something that happened to them, and they can’t help you with what you’re saying.

Their legs are going in all different directions and they’re not looking you in the eye. If you’re feeling guilty about something, you’ll see that a lot of people look down. This can be used as a way of letting someone know that you know they’re guilty and you want to know what it is.

4. When people rub their eyes, they’re actually frustrated.

When someone rubs their eyes, that means that they’re frustrated with something. You might not see someone rubbing their eyes while they’re talking to you. They might be smiling or looking the other way, but when they rub their eyes, they’re not really thinking about you, they’re just really frustrated.

If you really don’t know what you want to ask someone, or you’re feeling anxious or nervous, this might be the time to ask them to hold on to that thought, to let you know how they’re feeling.

5. When people try to hide their hands, they’re about to do something.

If someone’s doing something that’s trying to hide their hands, then they probably aren’t very happy with the situation. If you want to get someone’s attention, it’s usually a good idea to ask them to have their hands in front of them.

If they have their hands behind their back, then they probably are looking at you but they don’t want to make a big deal about it. This kind of indicates that they’re comfortable with you but they’re not going to tell you about whatever it is that they’re doing.

_{Photo by Dương Nhân}