How to Read “If you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells”
Omou koto iwaneba hara fukuru
Meaning of “If you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells”
This proverb means that keeping your thoughts bottled up inside has negative effects on your mind and body. When you have something to say but swallow your words and stay silent, stress builds up inside you, just like your stomach swelling.
People use this saying when someone is holding back complaints or opinions, or when they themselves are suffering from keeping quiet. You might say, “If you keep holding it in like that, if you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells.”
It reminds people how important it is to express their feelings appropriately.
Even today, many people at work or home hold back what they want to say and accumulate stress. This proverb warns about the dangers of suppressing emotions continuously.
It doesn’t mean you should say everything on your mind. But it teaches that expressing your feelings properly is important for maintaining mental and physical health.
Origin and Etymology
The exact first appearance of this proverb in written records is unclear. However, people believe it was widely used among common people during the Edo period.
Looking at the structure of the phrase, “omou koto” means thoughts and feelings in your heart. “Iwaneba” means not speaking out. “Hara fukuru” means the stomach swelling.
The expression “hara fukuru” is particularly interesting. People in old times compared the act of swallowing words to actually swallowing something that makes your stomach expand.
If you push words down into your stomach like you’re holding them in, they accumulate inside and make your belly swell. This expression is based on actual physical sensations.
During the Edo period, common people lived under strict social class systems and hierarchies. There were many situations where they couldn’t freely say what they wanted.
In this social environment, the real experiences of people forced to endure likely gave birth to this proverb. In an era with limited medical knowledge, people may have understood stress-related health problems as the concrete physical symptom of “stomach swelling.”
This proverb expresses the mind-body discomfort caused by suppressing words through everyday physical sensations. It contains the wisdom of common people’s daily lives.
Usage Examples
- My recent irritation might be because if you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells, and I can’t speak my mind to my boss
- She always endures everything, but I worry because if you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “If you don’t say what you think, your stomach swells” contains a universal truth about how deeply connected the human mind and body are. Why do we suffer when we swallow our words?
It’s because humans are fundamentally creatures who need communication.
Words are not just tools for transmitting information. By releasing the emotions and thoughts inside us, we maintain our mental balance.
Continuing to suppress them is like a dam blocking a natural flow. Just as water will eventually burst through if it keeps accumulating, emotions will damage your mind and body if you keep storing them up.
This proverb has been passed down for hundreds of years because in every era and every society, there have been people suffering from not being able to say what they want.
Rulers and common people, parents and children, bosses and subordinates. Human society always has power relationships, and people in weaker positions have faced situations where they must swallow their words.
But our ancestors understood something important. Endurance is not always a virtue. Sometimes you need to raise your voice to protect yourself.
This proverb is an urgent warning from people who know the cost of silence.
When AI Hears This
When you store emotions in your heart without putting them into words, disorder in your mind and body increases, like heat building up in a sealed container. This is surprisingly similar to the second law of thermodynamics.
In a closed system, entropy always increases. Unusable energy keeps accumulating and order is lost.
The human heart has the same structure. When you swallow what you want to say, that emotional energy doesn’t disappear but converts into another form inside your body.
The stress hormone cortisol is secreted, muscles tense up, and internal organs in the abdomen actually get compressed, creating a feeling of bloating.
This is a state where emotion, a high-quality energy, has degraded into physical discomfort, a low-quality unusable energy. It’s evidence that entropy has increased.
What’s interesting is that the act of speaking functions as a physical “opening of the system.” By putting things into words and releasing them outside, you can discharge the accumulated energy from the system.
Then entropy inside the body decreases and mind-body order is restored. Deep breathing and exercise have similar effects, but verbalization is the most efficient entropy discharge method.
That’s because you can transfer emotion as information directly to the outside as information. This proverb teaches that humans are essentially open systems who cannot maintain health without exchanging energy with the external world.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches you today is the importance of being honest with your own feelings. Even in an age where anyone can post on social media, many people still can’t say what they really want to say.
Complaints at work, honest feelings toward family, discomfort in friendships. Aren’t we swallowing our words today too, thinking “I don’t want to make waves” or “I don’t want to be disliked”?
But enduring doesn’t always protect you. Rather, what accumulates in your heart will eventually make you suffer.
What matters is not exploding with everything at once. It’s learning to express your thoughts in appropriate ways at appropriate times.
Talk to someone you trust, write in a journal, get counseling. There are many methods. You don’t have to communicate perfectly.
Even if you’re clumsy, please let what’s inside you come out. That’s what it means to value yourself.
Your heart and body need your voice more than you think.
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