Body Language: Creating Instant Rapport

Mirroring is something that we do naturally with our body language when we are comfortable with another person. The process of matching the other persons body language helps to build rapport with them and makes them comfortable with you.

Dating tips. Photo: Bayonetblaha

Your conversation will be much more comfortable and relaxed if you match each other in certain ways, such as:

• Voice: having a conversation with someone who talks much louder or faster than you can be off-putting.
• Height: If one of you is standing and the other sitting this can be awkward – avoid having a conversation with her chest guys!
• Eye-contact: Some people like eye contact, others are shyer and give less. You’ll notice that the amount of eye contact between you will increase as you become more intimate.

Be careful not to match exactly – mimicking them will really make the other person uncomfortable! Simply try to avoid badly mismatching them and making them feel ill at ease. You can also use mismatching to help you end a conversation.

For further reading on this, try reading “NLP and Relationships by Prior and O’Connor” who explain this, and many other interesting concepts in more depth.