The Art of Paying Attention: Folding Arms

As I will say time and time again, every action and every word has a reason behind it, even if the actor doesn't know about it.

An obvious and incredibly noticeable action, folding of the arms/ crossing arms. People tend to do this only in reaction to something or it is always sitting there. A person could have many reasons to want to cross their arms, self consciousnesses, fear, protection, power, ect.

When someone is feeling self conscious about their bodies they will tend to try to cover it up, someone who feels as if they are fat will almost always have their arms covering their stomach. They get a sense of "it doesn't exist if no can see it" mentality. It is partially derived from shame, but this can just in general happen, if a person is reminded of something that would make them feel self conscious they may have the common reaction to try and hide and cross their arms. (arms crossed over the stomach or chest, depend on self conscious area, and slouching)

Fear, oh so common for a pregnant woman.When a mother has the knowledge of being pregnant they will always no longer throw their hands in front of their face in fear of pain but to their stomach so the baby does not get hurt. It is a natural tenancy, this also shows in people who have injuries in the stomach it is fear of something more than another, so they cross their arms in front of them. (closed eyes and crossed arms close and tight, full bent over)

Protection, if someone has the sense of feeling of being small and pushed around by someone who is seemingly big, the small person wants to hide away and never be seen by the large statured person. You don't need to be expecting physical pain just the emotional impact of feeling small, and any form of hazing or bullying or just significance will cause them to cross their arms. (Arms crossed in between their stomach and chest, slightly bent over causing them to look up)

And now power, the sense of feeling powerful, reacting to an accomplishment or just feeling of having power, with money, strength, access, or popularity. A person mainly men will cross their arms and push out their chest showing that they are high and strong, it has been shown in all of our past that when your chest is pushed out, it is like making yourself bigger in turn making yourself look and feel stronger. (crossed arms over chest with head high and chest plate pushed out)

This is a very diverse and interesting reaction, as a whole we acknowledge this only as one action where there are very many variations of it and they all mean something completely different.

Oh and yes there are also physical conditions that you have to know about so you don't accidently assume something when it is really nothing. If someone is cold or in pain we all know they could easily want to cross their arms and bend. If this is the case all previous thoughts of crossing arms is completely gone.