We all know the feeling - butterflies in the stomach before a big moment, a cramp before an exam, an unexpected need for the toilet before an important conversation. For a long time we dismissed it as "it's all in your head". It turns out the opposite is true: the feeling is real, and it starts in the gut and works upward, not from the head down.

The biologist Tamara Pazos explains it simply - the brain and the gut hold a constant conversation. The digestive system is directly linked to the nervous system through the so-called enteric nervous system, which is not called the "second brain" by accident. The link is carried by the vagus nerve, a long nerve structure connecting the brain to the internal organs. And here is the key fact that turns the whole picture on its head: around 80 percent of the signals travel from the gut to the brain, not the other way around.

In other words, the gut constantly reports to the brain what is happening with digestion, and that affects how we feel. When we are facing something important, the brain switches on the alarm - attention rises, stress hormones are released, and the work of the organs changes, the gut included. Hence the cramp, the discomfort or the sudden urge at the most inconvenient moment.

The neuroscientist Ignacio Morgado of the University of Barcelona adds that emotions are not purely mental at all - the body actively takes part, through the constant monitoring of muscle tension, heartbeat, breathing and digestion. That is why falling in love gives exactly that feeling: a mix of emotion, uncertainty and novelty that triggers the same mechanism as stress, except this time it is pleasant.

The point is not esoteric, but practical. When your stomach next stirs before something important, that is not weakness nor invention - it is the body and the mind working as one system. And perhaps it is a good reminder: if the gut talks to the brain that loudly, it is worth eating and breathing in a way that listens to it.