After coming back to Cafe on a Vine several times now, I have noticed many of the regular guests that come for their meal. One in particular I see consistently is a middle aged African American woman. Whenever I see her, she looks very depressed. It is pretty normal to see sad faces, but being in the soup kitchen seems to put them in a better mood at least. But this woman's sadness seems to run deeper than most. By the look on her face and her nonverbal reactions she gave it was apparent that she was depressed.
Since some of the other workers could tell she was very sad, they often would go out of their way to try and make her smile. I do not really know what to say to make her feel better, so I just give her my best smile and give her her meal. I hope that through this nonverbal form of communication, I can create a better relationship with her. Nonverbal communication is very important role during every relational stage and this is a good example. Simply by smiling at her, I can show her my happy mood and hopefully through emotional contagion, she can catch my feelings and brighten her own, if even just for a little bit. I will also try to converse with her in the future and coupled with nonverbal communication, I hope I can help just a little bit to make her feel less sad.
This experience has helped me to understand better the importance of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is something I do instinctively most of the time and I do not really think how it affects others. With this new understanding, in the future I can be more aware of those nonverbal cues and use them to more communicate more effectively.
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