Communicating is exchanging information with another person and there are many ways in which this can be done. The most obvious is by speaking and this can be either face to face or by using a medium such as a phone. It is also possible to communicate via the written word. Examples of ways of doing this are:
• By letter
• By email
• By fax
• By memo
Communicating can also be done non-verbally by using body language. The most obvious examples of this are things like nodding and shaking the head to indicate yes and no; shrugging the shoulders to show that you don't know something; or by facial expressions, but it can also take place by other gestures. Some of these can be very subtle and very often are a sub-conscious way of showing what we are feeling, and some people are much better than others on picking up on these cues.
It isn't just people who can communicate; animals do it too. Horses for example have a very finely tuned method of communicating and in the main it is done by body language. Monty Roberts, the very famous 'horse whisperer' has studied this language for years and uses it so that he can understand what a horse is 'saying' so that he can have a better relationship with horses.
For example, a horse will hold its head and shoulders in a particular way if it is telling another horse (or a person) to back off, and Monty uses this body language back at a horse to get the horse to move into a position that he wants. This Intelligent Horsemanship is being shared across the world with other horse lovers and means that the relationship between human and equine can be based on trust and understanding, not on cruelty and force. This method should not be confused with the methods shown in the movie 'The Horse Whisperer', which actually shows very distressing scenes of dominating a horse.
• By letter
• By email
• By fax
• By memo
Communicating can also be done non-verbally by using body language. The most obvious examples of this are things like nodding and shaking the head to indicate yes and no; shrugging the shoulders to show that you don't know something; or by facial expressions, but it can also take place by other gestures. Some of these can be very subtle and very often are a sub-conscious way of showing what we are feeling, and some people are much better than others on picking up on these cues.
It isn't just people who can communicate; animals do it too. Horses for example have a very finely tuned method of communicating and in the main it is done by body language. Monty Roberts, the very famous 'horse whisperer' has studied this language for years and uses it so that he can understand what a horse is 'saying' so that he can have a better relationship with horses.
For example, a horse will hold its head and shoulders in a particular way if it is telling another horse (or a person) to back off, and Monty uses this body language back at a horse to get the horse to move into a position that he wants. This Intelligent Horsemanship is being shared across the world with other horse lovers and means that the relationship between human and equine can be based on trust and understanding, not on cruelty and force. This method should not be confused with the methods shown in the movie 'The Horse Whisperer', which actually shows very distressing scenes of dominating a horse.
