February 16 th, Personal Space

PERSONAL SPACE IS SACRED FOR SOME CULTURES... IS IT FOR YOU?

Have you ever heard your little kids arguing and and saying things like:
You are touching my chair, or you are breathing my air, or you are looking at me!
Really! Does it really bothers them?

I am hispanic and I live in a city of  1,321 milliion people. We have problems of very crowded busses at rush hours, some of my kids get the bus daily, but I pick up the little one, When I have to pick her up an take a bus, she gets mad,  she doesn´t like to be touch by others, or been in a crowded bus,  I would say that she believes that her personal space is sacred. Is it for me?

In a recent research of personal space that focused on the brain mechanisms, specific areas of the brain contains neurons that monitor the space around the body and they track objects. These reurons are almost like radar firing signals when something looms close, thir activity risins to a frenzied peack if the object touches. When those neurons become highly active, the feed directly into our movment control, subtly adjusting our movement or, in extreme cases, causing finching or cringing. It impacts our sense of sef, our ability to use tools, our culture and our social and emotional behavior, which means to be human. (1)

So next time that your kid doesn´t want to sit next to a unknown person in the theater, don´t think he is being rude, he is just protecting  his personal space. I have my own sacred personal space. Ones I was talking with my daughter best friend dad, he stood up to closed to me, I gave one step back and he one step to me, I did that so many times and felt so bad, so next time I was going to see him, I walk away immediately because I didn´t want to talk with him anymore.

Imagine that we all have a portable air bubble which determines our personal space, for some is a little bubble specially for those who grew up in a big city, since they need to share their s pace in their apartment or at the bus or at the mall. On the contrary a person that grew up in town with low population sems to have a giant air bubble, we can see how they extend their arms to shake hands, like saying stay thre, don´t cross the line, and the other one seems to be more invasive, he even touch his elbow. 






So we all have sacred  personal spaces the difference is the wide or narrow space,  How would this information help you  when someone invade your personal space?



1.-  http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap9.html