Communication is the live wire of all relationships. It is a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication.
Body language is said to constitute 70-93% of communication. This is because our actions cannot lie as words can come off as quite cheap. Have you noticed that it may be easy to say something but your body language communicating otherwise?
In a romantic relationship, once the heart flutters, uncontrollable smiling and giggling, blushing, excitement, constant touching, and daydreaming start to become a rare occurrence, a break up looming in the air.
Before the hitches in verbal communication or ghosting, here are five body language signs to brace yourself for break up:
1. Facing away from each other
The emotional connection between couples tends to sync their body language, sometimes catching them unawares. The opposite is true if the emotional connection is broken. Facing away from each other, sitting farther apart, less fronting with shoulders, hips and knees and more standing beside each other.
2. No eye contact
Eye contact in a relationship is powerful. In 1970, social psychologist Zick Rubin attempted to measure romantic love by tracking eye contact between couples left in a room alone together. The couples that felt more love held eye contact the longest.
3. Fewer smiles, more grimaces
Relationships thrive on little interactions, physical and otherwise. They remind your partner that you are still interested. In one experiment, by psychologist John Gottman, couples who stayed married tended to turn towards each other in “bids” for affection or support, with a smile or wink. If you sense that the smile is not genuine, with no crinkled cheeks or winking of the eyes, frequent half smiles and tight-lipped smiles, you could be in trouble.
4. Feet pointing away from each other
This leaning away of any kind could be silently spelling out “break up” for you. Feet pointing inward signals attraction, subconsciously at least. The opposite is a sign that the emotional connection is lacking.
5. Shuddering when you talk to each other
A body shudder comes from deep inside a person’s emotional brain. Recoiling from any interaction is the ultimate sign that the relationship is over. According to body language expert and psychotherapist Paul Hokemeyer “this reaction, especially to romantic advances, is primal.”