A body language expert has shared a list of subtle signs that may indicate your partner is looking to break up with you, including pupil contraction, tapping the foot and 'peacocking'.
British expert Judi James has laid out a number of giveaways to look out for, breaking these down into 12 areas.
These include (deep breath) metronomic rituals, self-comfort gestures, barrier gestures, the phone-a-friend, stress signals, the eyes, pupil dilation, the hardening of facial features, subliminal mirroring, mocking expressions, peacocking, and animosity signals from their friends.
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Speaking to the Daily Mail, James explains that with something she calls 'metronomic rituals', there's often a sense of impatience at the end of a relationship.
This, she says can manifest itself as 'metronomic gestures' that tap or beat out a quick rhythm, such as drumming fingers or tapping feet.
As for self-comfort gestures, James includes 'fiddling, hair-preening, face-touching or fidgeting' as signs of the pressure to break up with someone, adding that a restless partner may also adopt 'self-attack behaviours' like biting lips or nails and cracking knuckles.
Explaining what she means by 'barrier gestures', James says: "When a split is looming on the horizon, not only will touch rituals decrease but these intentional gestures will be replaced by barrier rituals.
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"Examples can include carrying a phone, bag and/or car keys in the hand closest to you to avoid hand-holding or sitting with their legs crossed away from you to avoid foot or leg touch."
Her next category, 'the phone-a-friend', is all about using phones as the perfect distraction, with people often looking for support from their loved ones when on the brink of a breakup - sometimes complaining about their other half, or looking to gain sympathy.
James' stress signals include 'an accelerated blink rate, a contraction of the shoulder and neck muscles causing an upward hunch, accelerated and more shallow breathing, face or head-rubbing, lip-licking or a small tongue-poke and an inability to sit' as common symptoms, going on to explain how the eyes are also the most expressive part of the body.
"A partner on the brink of breaking up will tend to avoid eye contact at all costs, looking down or away or keeping busy with small tasks like continuing to look at their phone or their keypad while you are talking," James says.
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Similarly, James argues that pupils dilate when we look at someone we love, but that if that emotion begins to die, pupils may contract instead.
She also says that facial features might harden, as the softened expression associated with the 'look of love' is replaced by a harder eye expression and a tight, polite smile.
James believes that the natural choreography of a couple may fall 'out of kilter', no longer subliminally mirroring each other as they once did, while mocking expressions could also creep in, such as 'eye-rolling, sighing or throwing out their arms in displays of acted exasperation'.
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Peacocking may be another indicator, with James saying partners may clock their reflection in any mirror they pass or adopt 'exaggerated body posturing' like leg splaying.
Lastly, James warns that the partner's friends may also be a bit of a giveaway, saying people often paint their other half in a bad light if they're thinking of ending a relationship, in turn making them feel less guilty as their network encourages the split.
"Their negative PR pitch about you should mean their friends' acceptance signals diminish out of loyalty to them and they might even begin to look openly hostile," James says.
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