Most people think that words constitute majority of communication. There is thus a tendency to focus more on these in improving one’s communication skills. On the contrary, only 7% of communication is composed of words, where the remaining 93% is nonverbal element.

Nonverbal communication, or NVC, is a wordless process of communication. In dividing the mentioned 93%, 38% is made up of the tone of voice, while the remaining 55% includes body language, facial expressions, and gestures. Even other objects such as clothes, hairstyle, and symbols can become media of NVC for delivering certain messages.

Speech alone has its own share of nonverbal elements, such as emotions, intonation, rhythm, stress, speaking style, and voice quality. These make up what is known as paralanguage. Written communication too has its own nonverbal rudiments, and examples of these are style of handwriting, spaces between words, and even emoticons.

No matter how hard one tries not to communicate, this is very impossible. One may argue that he would not speak so as not to communicate, but nonverbal communication can take place even in silence. It is even the first form of communication that a person develops at infancy. As time moves on, a child learns to polish his NVC skills, which are often learned through imitation of what he sees around.

Nonverbal communication is put into use for a number of reasons. First, words are not enough to express what you mean. This single limitation is apparent when one is a describing a thing or giving a direction. The nonverbal elements stress what you want to imply, thus making your delivery of message more powerful and effective.

When speaking of emotions, NVC can send complex thoughts more thoroughly than words. In fact, there are some emotions where it is impossible to merely communicate by merely using words. Researchers have even proven that more feelings are effectively sent and received by using nonverbal signals. Indeed, one must mix verbal and nonverbal elements in order to achieve an effective way of communication.

Perhaps the most common types of nonverbal signals are gestures. The movements of limbs, the flicking of fingers, the nod of the head, the raising of eyebrows and the darting of eyes from one spot to another are examples of such cues. In fact, these are becoming harder and harder to control as there are hundreds and thousands of bodily movements with a distinct message to be relayed. Besides, communicating becomes more vivid with gestures, and body movements cannot hide the real message that is intended to be sent.

Facial expressions are yet another set of gestures that may or may not be intended. This can be faked, but some body parts can betray you, such as the look of your eyes. It is true then that the eyes mirrors your soul’s content, that’s why it is urged to maintain eye contact for a more effective communication.

Distance is also a nonverbal cue, and it is even subdivided into types to distinguish your relationship to the person you are communicating with. The closer you are to a person, the more likely it is that you would be touching that person, which channels yet another set of messages to a person.

There are still a myriad of nonverbal messages that can be effectively relayed which can be another subject of writing. The prevalence of these must not be ignored, since these are the purest messages that can be inadvertently conveyed. Thus, it can be said that your communication skills can be affected by unspoken truths.