While driving a manual car, if you happen to shift gear without pressing the clutch pedal, your car will warn you that the transmission is suffering and could break down. I use this simple example to represent the basic function of our body. We often give up on speaking our mind just because we want to agree with everyone else. We often fake it when we are furious not to let our disappointment come out. We often let go of a brilliant idea. We show 20160627093903951-2indifference when we are greatly drawn to someone. We do not cry when we are grieving. We retain from giving a hug that we consider inappropriate. What happens to our body then? The ways our feelings are affected may be different, but to not express ourselves has a consequence inside each and every one of us: it activates peptides, which are threads of proteins that connect our intangible world to our body. Thanks to them, the body perceives our emotional world on a physical level. And, just by listening to our body, we can tell if we are following our desires or pre-set boundaries. Every time we give up on expressing ourselves, energy blocks are created. We can then hear our car warning us that the clutch is not being pressed. How many times in a day do we listen to what’s happening in our body? Let’s consider our mental noise and all interference. We are our body, our cells, our thoughts, our feelings, our lungs, our belly, our optimism and pessimism, our kindness and anger, our 20160627093903951-3views, our guts. Although all these parts may look separate, they are greatly linked to one another. Vitality, body and lifestyle, the thoughts we produce and the resulting views are all connected. In spite of this, our culture gives much importance to our mind and very little to our guts. This prevents us from grasping how fundamental this step of awareness is. Our health, our awareness and well-being are linked to how healthy our guts are.