Body Language 101: The Mouth

To wrap up the week I’m going to talk a little bit about your mouth and how it pertains to body language. Your mouth gives away a myriad of incredibly signals but very few people realize, or have control over, the movements they make with their mouths.

The mouth can easily be hidden with papers or with a person’s hand but is something most can’t control unless they’re physically touching it. Smiling involves the entire face while fake facial expressions only involve the mouth. Here are a few things to look for when you assess a person’s face – specifically the mouth.

• Fake or pasted smiles appear on a person’s face very quickly, stay in place longer than a real smile would, and is limited to the person’s mouth alone. Their eyes don’t shine, their cheeks don’t move, and they don’t actually look happy. If you see a faked smile you should wonder why.
• People who smile with their lips closed, aka tight-lipped, are usually trying to hide something. They either have a secret or are rejecting you because they don’t like or trust you.
• When a person juts out his bottom lip he’s letting you know he is upset about something. Some people do this naturally when they are crying but a person doesn’t have to be crying to let you know something is wrong.
• If you notice someone biting his or her lip it may be because he feels as though he’s in a tense situation. Lip biting often indicates stress, tension, or anxiety or in rare cases may indicate a person is focused and concentrating on something.

These are, again, only a few examples of how the mouth is used in studying body language. You may see people poking their tongues out, chewing on pens or pencils, pursing their lips, biting their nails, or even covering with their hands. Each has something significant to say and it’s up to you to determine what each action really means in your own situational contexts.

Written by Sean McPheat

CEO of MTD Training and Amazon bestselling author. Sean writes about leadership, business, and personal growth, drawing on 20+ years of experience helping over 9,000 companies improve performance.

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