The definitive book of body language by Allan and Barbara Pease is a No. 1 International bestseller. With over 25 million book sales worldwide, the authors of this book have become household names.

This is an expansion to the original book “Body language” by Allan Pease, As mentioned in their section about “How we wrote this book”, they have stated, that they even introduced research from new scientific disciplines, such as evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, as well as technologies like the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which shows what happens in your brain, when you engage with the world.

The introduction of the book opens up with a quote from Sherlock Holmes.

“By a man’s fingernails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the calluses of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs, by his movements – By each of these things, a man’s calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer, in any case, is almost inconceivable.”

– Sherlock Holmes, 1892

This particular book mainly focuses on body gestures, movements, and expressions, as mentioned, the basics of body language you require in any face-to-face encounter.

So if you ever wanted to be Sherlocked, then this is your initiation.

 

My opinion over The definitive book of body language by Allan and Barbara Pease

 

The book is fairly easy to read, with great everyday examples which immediately click with you when you start reading. Whatever you learn in this book, will be guided by experience, observation, and scientific facts.

Each chapter is short and sweet, with a lot of casual tones and humor added to it. I have not read many books on body language or any other content for that accord regarding this topic, my first lessons came through Sherlock. I am sure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have been a very observant man.

Possibly a real-life Sherlock. The TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch really piqued my interest in this field of learning. I was so excited at the thought of being able to understand people around me even better. To be able to walk in a room full of people and know their stories immediately.

As a writer myself, I understood this will be a great help when I do character study and build stories and people from the scratch for my books and movies in the future.

Like the Author himself, I second this, that this is not exploiting scientific progress to manipulate and cunningly disorient the people around you into doing something which they don’t want but you want.

It’s actually understanding yourself and the people around you better and learning to navigate through this world of ours even more effectively. Like I always say, have a holistic approach, see by learning what more you can enrich your life experience.

So from my point of view, like The Personal MBA, this is a great and vast overview of physical communication. Easy to read and easy to digest, plus very practical in nature, by which you can start noticing and practicing immediately.

With focus and observation, your knowledge will improve on its own accord, consider this one like an Initiation.

Some food for thought

We all have read that the body achieves what the mind believes. Sadly though, I think not many have put much thought into understanding that statement. That particular statement could also be interpreted vice-versa, the mind follows where the body leads.

So if you alter any one of them, the other will follow suit. So if you learn and understand body language better through this book, first your own body language to start with, you can use that immensely in your favor.

For example: If you adopt brave body language, your mind will interpret it as bravery and will start feeling like that. If you act confident, your mind will feel confident. If you adopt a social body language, even though you might be an introvert but immediately your mind will follow suit and start feeling extroverted.

You act strong and you will feel strong. As I always say, everything is a thought process and thought processes are built by habit. Your everyday physical movements also affect your state of mind and how you think.

The reason fake it till you make it works, is because eventually those fake habits, start becoming the real you. However I don’t want to encourage you to fake things, all I want to say is, as you continue adding more substance to your life, use the appropriate body language for a situation to boost your results or morale.

To lead an optimum life, learn and utilize all that you can whenever you can.

Understand yourself better and start changing little things like, the way you sit, the way you stand, the way you walk, the way you sleep, and eventually you will start noticing, that you are moving out of your comfort zone and feeling positive about the direction of your life as a whole.

Change always starts with little things like that.

Finally, who should read this book?

1. To be frank, I think everyone should.

If you are a reader from the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the UK then you can purchase this book from Amazon by clicking here.


Readers from India can purchase this book by clicking here.


Others can try clicking on one of the Euro stores and see if you land on your local Amazon store to purchase.

 

Conclusion

An enjoyable read, an amusing read, and an interesting study into how humans really work. Don’t take everything as gospel, have common sense, have empathy when you finish reading it. Because you could really turn into a judgemental Ahole if you let this information get to your head.

The only trap I will ask you to avoid after finishing this is to completely avoid being judgemental of your fellow human beings. Any constructive feedback you can give them to improve their life is alright, but nothing more, or simply just guide them towards this book.

Overall have fun knowing what this book offers and enjoy your newfound understanding in life.