One traditional Chinese adage says, “Your heart can create heaven or hell.” The modern version of this might read something like, “Your consciousness creates your reality.” We have all felt the effects of emotional distress on the body. When a loved one is ill, you’re going through a tough transition at work, or your home life is unsettled, you play a sort of emotional tug-of-war that is felt, and often represented, on your physical body.

The body, mind, emotions and spirit are inseparably connected. Each of us is a whole being. So it’s very difficult—if not impossible—to have true physical health without a balanced and peaceful mind and spirit. It’s crucial to understand that emotions affect your overall health. Personal circumstances as well as larger, more global events are at the root of many physical problems.

A beneficial practice is “letting it go.” By letting emotions flow, you can rid yourself of disease-causing conditions that can affect your health in an adverse way. But truthfully, letting it go it is easier said than done. How do you live a stressful situation day in and day out without feeling the stress? How do you “Let it go” when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel?

This key TCM and Taoist philosophy involves a perspective change. It understands that while we can’t really control external events and circumstances, we do have a choice in how we react to them. It takes a step back and allows that what sometimes seems “bad” isn’t always entirely bad, and what appears “good” isn’t always one hundred percent good. It’s a new way of stepping back and looking at the situation with a clear set of eyes. While the situation may not be ideal, there is a silver lining—somewhere—if only you look at it from the right angle.

And it begs for the help of the Universe. This may sound cliché, but often situations that seem impossible are that way because we’ve lost our sense of control over them. This is when it’s important to recognize that innate connection we were all born with—the one that connects us to every living creature. The singing birds, swimming whales, and graceful trees are all part of our makeup as living beings—and what ties us to Earth and to the Universe itself.

So, how do you go about asking for Universal help for a situation that seems utterly impossible to solve? If you’ve ever made a to-do list, you’ll know where this is headed. People who make to-do lists usually start out their day or week with a list of things they want to accomplish. These things can be work-related, such as ‘5pm deadline’, or home-related, such as ‘bring soccer team snack’, or a mixture of the two. Usually they are things that can be accomplished or checked off as the day or week progresses.

But what about the invisible to-do list that we hold in our heads every passing minute—‘stop fighting with in-laws’, ‘come to a resolve on the school issue’, etc. These are items that never make it to a written list. They never have to. We don’t need constant reminders that they’re there—our minds and bodies know them all too well.

And therein lies the problem. We need to get these nagging problems out of our bodies, and even out of our minds if we want them to be resolved. This is not suggesting that in letting these issues go, you’ll forget about them. Not exactly. Just that you’re asking the Universe—which has more power than any human being—to hold them, mold them, and transform them for you, and then return them in a nice, clean package.

In order to give up the control and ‘let it go’, you need to put your intentions out there. Go out in Nature and speak openly—ask the Universe to take this problem or that situation from you. You’ll soon discover that many things that are out of your control are that way for a reason. They are not meant to be controlled. They serve a bigger purpose that will be revealed when the time has come for the issue to resolve itself. Guaranteed—the Universe has handled bigger and more powerful things than what you’re asking. And when the time has come for that nice, clean package to be returned to you, you may find that it looks nothing like when it first started—that it has changed and has been molded. And that’s when you can finally release it and truly ‘let it go.’