As someone whose stories are almost exclusively character driven I have to agree with that totally. I use eyes a lot, and hands, as I have already mentioned.
I have to admit, though, that I don't have a checklist and, generally, I don't think about body language when i write. I 'see' the characters and move with them in my head. When they weep I weep, when they laugh I laugh. I 'feel' their emotion and then i describe it as best I can. It's only when someone starts a discussion like this that i realise how much i unconsciously use body language in my writing.
I believe that this is partly because i look for body language in my work and are very aware of it in my life. Being strongly empathetic, I think helps, because I tune in easily to someone else's emotional state and associate that with their body language; looking to that for evidence of what i am feeling. I think this can be summarised as life experience.
Becuase it is life experience it is something that is done automatically without conscious thought and therefore it comes through in things such as writing. That doesn't mean, though, that the consciousness isn't there somewhere and that all of these things that Louis has mentioned are not going on somewhere inside the subconscious mind.
WOW, I'm getting deep here. Thanks so much Louis. Anything that makes me think and stretches my mind can only be a good thing, even if it does give me a headache jk