by So I’ve always been super interested in body language stuff, right? Like how people reveal things without talking. But eyes… man, those kept confusing me. One day at Starbucks I noticed my buddy’s eyes darting around when I asked about his job search. Made me realize I had no clue what that meant. Time to figure this eye thing out properly.
Starting With Total Basics
First I just binge-watched people’s eyeballs. Sat in the park for hours, pretending to read while secretly watching eyeball gymnastics. Saw tons of blinking when people got stressed waiting in line, noticed people looking up when thinking hard about directions. Started scribbling notes like “girl checking phone – eyes squinted for 5 sec when reading text” or “guy explaining car trouble – pupils got huge when mentioning repair costs”.
The Notebook Phase
Bought this cheap dollar store notebook and divided pages like this:
- Left page: Raw observations with timestamps
- Right page: Guesses about meaning + later verification
Spent two whole weeks logging everything:
- Staring contests: Held eye contact slightly too long during convos – freaked out three coworkers and my dentist
- Blink experiments: Tried controlling my blinks talking to cashiers. Felt like a malfunctioning robot
- Pupil tracking: Shone phone flashlight in mirror to see pupil changes. Nearly blinded myself twice
Major “Aha!” Stuff I Confirmed
After like 50 awkward conversations and weird public staring sessions:
- Prolonged eye contact during serious talks actually builds trust (weird but true!)
- Looking left/right usually means someone’s accessing memory or creating thoughts
- Rapid blinking isn’t just dry eyes – it’s often stress leaking out
- Pupils blowing up? That’s subconscious excitement about something
Epic Failures & Wins
Got cocky and tried “reading” my boss during salary talk. Mistook stress-blinks for deception (yikes!). Also learned blinking slows WAY down when people zone out – caught my sister faking interest in my cat stories immediately. Best moment? Noticed date’s pupils expanding when dessert menu came. Ordered tiramisu – she grabbed my hand! Science win!
So yeah, eyes are basically emotional subtitles. You just gotta stop talking long enough to read them. Still suck at interpreting eye rolls though… pretty sure my mom’s perfected those just for me.
