عندما نكون سعداء نمشي وكأننا نحلق في الهواء . نرى ذلك مع المعجبين والمشدودين للبقاء مع بعضهم ومع الاطفال المتلهفين للدخول الى حديقة عامة . ويبدو ان الجازبية لا تمثل عائق للذين يشعرون بالاثارة . تلك السلوكيات واضحة تماما , ومع ذلك من الواضح انها تحدث يوميا حولنا دون أن نلاحظها .
عندما نكون متحمسين لشيء ما او نشعر بالإجابية الشديدة تجاه ظروفنا , نميل إلى أن نقاوم الجاذبية من خلال القيام ببعض الأشياء مثل التأرجح صعودا ً ونزولا ً على أطراف أقدامنا , أو نمشي بقليل من التمايل في خطواتنا .
يقول الكاتب جونافارو : مؤخرا ً كنت أشاهد رجلا ً لا اعرفه يتحدث في هاتفه الخلوي , وبينما كان يستمع , تغيرت وضعيت قدمه اليسرى , التي كانت مستوية على الأرض . ظل كعب القدم على الأرض تشير للأعلى (راجع الشكل ) .
[rtl]بالنسبة للشخص العادي قد يمضي هذا السلوك دون ملاحظة أو قد يتم تجاهله على اعتبار أنه ليس له أية أهمية ; ولكن بالنسبة للملاحظ المحنك , فإن هذا السلوك المقاوم للجازبية يمكن أن يفسر بسهولة ليعني ان الرجل الذي على الهاتف قد سمع لتوه شيئا ً إيجابيا . وبدون شك , عندما أقتربت منه استطعت أن أسمعه يقول , " حقا - هذا رائع !" كانت قدمه قد قالت بالفعل نفس المعنى ولكن بدون كلام . (1)[/rtl]
When we are happy and excited, we walk as if we are floating on air.
We see this with lovers enthralled to be around each other as well as with children who are eager to enter a theme park. Gravity seems to hold no boundaries for those who are excited. These behaviors are quite obvious, and yet every day, all around us, gravity-defying behaviors seemingly elude our observation. When we are excited about something or feel very positive about our circumstances, we tend to defy gravity by doing such things as rocking
up and down on the balls of our feet, or walking with a bit of a bounce in our step. This is the limbic brain, once again, manifesting itself in our nonverbal behaviors.
Recently I was watching a stranger talk on his cell phone. As he listened, his left foot, which had been resting flat on the ground, changed position. The heel of the foot remained on the ground, but the rest of his shoe moved up, so that his toes were pointing skyward (see figure 20). To the average
person, that behavior would have gone unnoticed or been disregarded as insignificant. But to the trained observer, that gravity-defying foot behavior can be readily decoded to mean that the man on the phone had just heard something positive. Sure enough, as I walked by I could hear him say,
“Really—that’s terrific!” His feet had already silently said the same thing. Even when standing still, a person telling a story may inch up to a taller stance, elevating himself to emphasize his points, and he may do so repeatedly. The individual does this subconsciously; therefore these elevating behaviors are very honest cues, since they tend to be true expres sions of the emotion attached to the story. They appear in real time along with the story line and relate his feelings along with his words. Just as we move our feet to the beat and tempo of a song we like, so too will we move
our feet and legs in congruence with something positive we say.
Interestingly, gravity-defying behaviors of the feet and legs are rarely seen in people suffering from clinical depression. The body reflects precisely the emotional state of the individual. So when people are excited we tend to see many more gravity-defying behaviors.(2)