Eye contact is incredibly powerful. A nonverbal means of communication that occurs consciously and unconsciously.

It’s deeply rooted in our DNA, because to early man and woman, eye contact could mean the difference between life and death, attraction and indifference.

The simple act of holding someone’s gaze can ignite or deepen relationships. It can let someone know that they’re being listened to, understood, loved, valued or appreciated. It can also demonstrate anger, hatred, confusion, discontent, fear, suspicion, boredom and disinterest. Your eyes can give away your true feelings and sometimes even your inner most thoughts. How you use it will also depend on where you come from, how you’ve been raised and your culture. Some cultures consider direct eye contact aggressive, rude, or a show of disrespect. Others consider a gaze between men and women inappropriate while on the other hand, avoiding a direct gaze with a member of the opposite sex or a superior is seen as a show of respect.

Western culture tends to take the view (excuse the pun) that making eye contact is an appropriate and indeed necessary way in which to establish yourself as friend or foe, honest or dishonest, professional or unprofessional, genuine or fake.

Giovanni Caputo, a psychologist based in Italy conducted a study which had a group of healthy individuals stare into someone else’s eyes for a period of 10 minutes. The result was that the ‘stare’ induced an altered state of consciousness, disassociation and even hallucinations.

Eye contact is an integral part of body language and it’s used as much by animals as humans. A dogs bared teeth convey a very simple message while a tilt of a it’s head might keep you guessing until their tail wags with delight. We respond to thousands of nonverbal cues everyday both consciously and unconsciously. Facial expression, posture, gestures, voice, tone, intonation, vocabulary and spacial awareness aka “space invaders”. Body language is a subject I may write about in finer detail another day, but for now, as any hypnotherapist worth their salt might say… look into my eyes.

Just before I close, I’m afraid I’m going to give my age away because all the while I’ve been writing this blog I’ve been singing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v4x9FA-th0

You’re welcome 🙂

https://gailmarrahypnotherapy.com/the-book/