16,000. That's how many words we speak on average each day. Imagine how many unspoken ones coursed through our minds. Most of them are not facts, but evaluations and judgements entwined with emotions. Some being easy to read and others more hard to understand. Try to think of a situation where you had a conversation and felt something was wrong. Your intuition told you that there is an incongruency between what the other person is saying and expressing with their body language. Imagine what impact it would have on our conversations with our colleagues, clients and even our kids and partner if we were able to identify these emotions and adapt our communication accordingly. Who knows? It could even save your merits. Studies from Harvard Business School have proved that people who learn how to read microexpressions will improve their emotional intelligence with 10%, which is crucial when collaborating and interacting with other people. Let's explore the basics of seven microexpressions that potentially will support you in changing your conversations. Microexpressions are movements of facial muscles that last for half a second or shorter. They are caused by short, involuntary movements in facial muscles that are activated by an emotional reaction. And this is why it for most people is impossible to control these muscle contractions. Already in 1872, Charles Darwin was the first who explored and noted the universal nature of the muscles. facial expressions of facial expressions. Later in the 1960s, the psychologists, Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen were the first to conduct research that concluded that there are seven basic emotions that is seen on faces all over the world. The seven microexpressions are happiness, contempt, disgust, anger, sadness, fear and surprise. Our emotions have always been key to the human survival. We need to know who who are our enemies and who we can trust and make friends with. In modern times, this is still a key guidance when navigating in social networks where we wouldn't survive if we were not able to distinguish between ours and others emotions. Happiness as a microexpressions is shown when you see that both slip corners go up symmetrically and are curled up at the same time. Contempt is the only microexpressions that is asymmetrical and it is shown when only one of the lip corners goes up. Disgust has two signals. One clear signal is wrinkles around the nose while lower lip is pressed against the upper lip. Anger has six different signals where the most common sign is brows lowered and eyelids are tightened. The most typical sign for sadness is when the lip corners are pulled down in both sides and sometimes also in combination with chin going up. Fear can be spotted from five different signals and clear sign is when you see the mouse opening and being tensed at the same time. We have four different ways to spot expressions of surprise. One of them is when the brows are being raised. But pay attention to that this signal is not necessarily an expression of surprise. It can also be a general conversational signal. With this introduction to the seven basic microexpressions, it is important to know that the stress that to be able to read microexpressions, you must pay attention to the neutral face of the one you are talking with. The neutral face is the baseline and changes from the baseline can be signs of emotional reactions. Being able to spot microexpressions will enable you to change your conversations into the better. Your explorations of this concept also offers a chance to reflect on your own perception of communicating with others, helping you learn more about what you do and why you do it, and that is what changing conversations is all about.