Psychologists have long
been studying the way we communicate with our bodies and have concluded that
body language is a fundamental extension of verbal communication and is
absolutely essential for humans to communicate effectively with other
humans. Yet most people, when they communicate, focus their energy on
what words they say rather than on how they are saying them. Because body language
happens at an unconscious level, few people are actively aware of the signals
they are picking up and transmitting through body language. As a result, we
often send the wrong messages without realising it. Or we transmit messages about ourselves that give away more than
we think about our innermost thoughts. I suppose the same can be said about the body language of our prayer life. To give an example - the fact that so many people like to keep themselves to themselves in life these days also means that when we give peace to those next to us in Church we may not be transmitting peace at all but our bodies indicate indifference to them. In fact we may be telling them bluntly "I don't really care about you, but I'll go through the action anyway".
Psychologists have found that when words and body language contradict each other, it is our body language that gives the stronger message. This is why it is so important for us to be aware and in control of the messages we give out through our body. We also tend to fail to pick up important messages that are transmitted through other people's body language.
Unfortunately today communication between people has been turned into a technological thing more than a personal one. True, technology - like mobile phones, internet and what have you - are good things that bring us together over great distances but they are also the cause for an increase in lack of family contact, when we rely more and more on the "system" to convey our words than on our own effort to do so. The total loss of body language therefore can cause one's message to be totally misunderstood. Tell that to anyone who has got into any form of argument in an e-mail exchange which was misread. The vocal nuances are not there. So the vocal is as equally important to the communication as the actual words said.
This works out in prayer in the same way. Look at how you sit, stand or kneel during prayer. Does your posture give you away and indicate that you are not taking the situation seriously enough? If you also do not feel, believe in, what you are saying, if you are praying mechanically, then the prayer has little value. And then we wonder why we may not be answered!! Yet compare that situation to when we put our whole selves into our prayer, then the difference is so obvious. Our body language gives us away...in the good and in the bad!
I came across the following in a blog by Andy McKee which says a lot about how we react to feelings in our life, especially the spiritual: "I believe music is delivered from the soul of the artist. The soul and music that comes from an artist are not easily separable, in fact, it may be impossible. So this comes with a question: What is in your soul? ....You can often sense the anger in some of the postings (on blogs) that can be a sign of trouble to come for those poor souls. Yet the music that we are listening to was created by the artist to help us in our pain. If you are into the pain part of life and don't need the relief, it usually shows in your treatment of others. But the lessons usually do their job of knocking the haughtiness out and someday you too will seek the medicine of great music."
