Nonverbal communication occurs in a context. Just as context is important to the meaning of verbal messages, so is context important to your understanding of nonverbal messages. Folded arms and laid-back posture may mean disinterest or boredom on one occasion, but may signify introspective thought on another. Professor Joseph DeVito of Hunter College says, in fact, that “Divorced from the context, it is impossible to tell what any given bit of nonverbal behavior may mean … In attempting to understand and analyze nonverbal communication … it is essential that full recognition be taken of the context.”

Nonverbal behaviors are usually packaged. Nonverbal behavior, according to most researchers, occurs in packages or clusters in which the various verbal and nonverbal messages occur more or less simultaneously. Body posture, eye contact, arm and leg movement, facial expression, vocal tone, pacing and phrasing of vocal expressions, muscle tone, and numerous other elements of nonverbal communication all happen at once. Isolating one element from another without taking all of them into account is difficult.

Nonverbal behavior always communicates. All behavior communicates, so you are always communicating, even when you aren't speaking with or listening to others. Even the least significant of your behaviors, such as your posture, the position of your mouth or the way you tuck (or fail to tuck) in your shirt, say something about your professionalism to others around you. Other people may not interpret those behaviors in the same way or in the way you might want them to, but like it or not, you're always communicating, even if you're just sitting there “doing nothing.” Doing nothing, in fact, may 39 communicate volumes about your attitude.

Nonverbal behavior is governed by rules. Linguistics is devoted to studying and explaining the rules of language. And just as spoken and written language follow specific rules so does nonverbal communication. A few forms of nonverbal behavior, such as facial expressions conveying sadness, joy, contentment, astonishment or grief, are universal. That is, the expressions are basically the same for all humankind, regardless of where you are born, raised or educated. Most of your nonverbal behavior, however, is learned and is a product of the culture in which you are raised.