Observation Essay: Nonverbal Listening

I chose to do an observation on myself for Nonverbal Listening. I had a conversation with two different people on two different occasions. The conversations were with my husband Scott, and a long time friend Kim, whom I do not see very often.
Scott and I went out to dinner at a restaurant a few days ago and we were there for a little more than an hour. The main topic of our conversation was about how he felt to be back home after being deployed by the Army, to Afghanistan for a year.
Kim and I met for lunch at Panera Bread Café last week. We only had 30 minutes together because she was on her lunch break from work. The topic of our discussion was about her marriage. The conversation between Scott and I made me feel several different emotions and I found that my nonverbal listening behavior was negative and positive. When he hesitated, looked around, and then smiled to answer my question of how it felt to be back home, I was unsure of how he felt and it made me concerned and upset. I was leaning toward him with a frowning face and squinting my eyes. His body language gave me an immediate assumption that he was unhappy or hiding his feelings. I snapped at him for an explanation. At this time he laughed, leaned toward me, held my hands, and looked directly in my eyes to explain his mixed feelings of feeling happy to be home and at the same time feels like a stranger in his surroundings. This response surprised me and made me feel relieved and happy. Then I began to smile and look directly into his eyes for long periods of time as we spoke.
I behaved and reacted in two different ways due to the body language Scott used with and without words. At first, I was confused and unhappy and once I heard his verbal reaction, I felt at ease and the