You only get one chance to make a first impression. First impressions form lasting images. The first words and first actions we present to another person resound and resonate throughout the duration of that relationship.

It is not that we are intentionally standoffish and skittish when presented with a new face. It is more about the unconscious gurgling up of the instinctual “fight-flight-freeze-fawn” response all of us possess. Whether we experience a “first impression” as engaging or annoying, easy-going or energetic, kind-hearted or kind of weird, we default to a “fight-flight-freeze-fawn” mode. We decide whether this encounter is something we choose to face, outface, redface, or, whether we suddenly feel the call of a cup of coffee from across the room.

Things like books as well as p…