Making the Unconscious Conscious

Nonverbals in Consent

A big part of learning about consent is about making the unconscious conscious. Our autonomic nervous system (the part of our nervous system that is working without our awareness) scans for safety and danger in our surroundings, as well as attunes to the emotional state of others. This is happening unconsciously. But as we make this process more conscious through awareness of our own nonverbal information, we can begin to use the parts of this process as tools to help us understand how we and others are feeling.

It’s important to remember that nonverbal indicators of emotional states are different for everyone. All forms of communication (verbal included) can mean different things to different people. Breaking eye contact means something specific to every individual. "I'm curious" means a different thing to everyone. Shrugging means something different to everyone. If you're not sure, ask!*

prosody

/ˈpräsədē/

noun

the patterns of rhythm and sound used in speech.

How you say what you say. Also known as the sound of punctuation. Tone of voice, vocal quality (ex. Vocal frye), pitch, volume, musicality of speech,

chunking, pauses, silence, filler words. Everything about speech aside from the words. (Prosody does not include the nonverbals that follow. Prosody is specific to speech.)

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