A surprising amount of communication doesn’t use any words – that’s why they call certain gestures and movements “body language”! Learning what these signs mean can help you understand other people and what kind of person they actually are. What may have started as a gut feeling may turn out to be your brain processing these gestures, and sensing someone’s energy!

What are common cues that will help you read people, and what do they mean? Here are some basic nonverbal cues that can help you spot who you should trust, and whom you should avoid!

Leaning In = Interest

When someone is leaning into someone else, that means they are paying close attention to that person or what they are saying. It also means that they are very comfortable with you and trust you. While other people don’t like it when some people get too close, take this as a positive sign that they enjoy your company!

Leg Shaking, Nail Biting And Fidgeting Indicate Nervousness

Some people find fidgeting very disrespectful, because they think it means the fidgeter doesn’t value other people’s time and are impatient to end the conversation.

What this really means is that someone is uncomfortable and trying to distract themselves or shake off the excess energy so they calm down. Don’t get too mad the next time you see someone unmindfully biting their pen while talking to you – it may just be a defense mechanism!

Not Looking You In The Eye? That Doesn’t Mean They’re Lying!

It’s often claimed that if people are lying to you, they can’t look you straight in the eye. This is completely false! If anything, practiced liars are more likely to look you in the eye. Because they know you’ll be looking for this sign. Being unable to meet someone’s stare is really a sign of shyness or nervousness.

…However, It Could Mean It’s Time To Wrap It Up

While people who aren’t looking you in the eye could just be shy. Or, it could also mean this negative thing. They are not interested in talking to you or they have other things on their mind. If they’re looking at other people too frequently or keep glancing at their watch while you two talk, that may not be nerves. That’s more likely to be a sign that they want the conversation to end. Pay attention to what they’re looking at to find out which one of the two it is!

Watch That Smile

We often smile even we don’t mean it, just to make other people comfortable. If you want to make sure that someone is smiling genuinely at you, check out the little corners near their eyes where so-called “crow’s feet” wrinkles form. If that area crinkles, that’s a sign that the smile is genuine, not forced!

How to read people is an important life skill that often gets passed off as intuition, but is probably just your mind seeing these hidden cues and trying to understand them!

If you ever have a gut feel about the people you talk to, see if they do any of these signs – it just might save you from wasting time on a bad social connection!