When the Force For Good team needed an inspirational image to represent our passion with one punch, the above photo hit the mark. You’ll see it on our website banner and other materials. Absorb this serene setting for a mental break, a moment to get lost in (your imagination and) nature’s boundless beauty— when life’s hectic pace leaves you needing a well-deserved breather.  

Nature and Music: Healing Partners

Just as our imagination can transport us via a visual cue, like the scenic expanse above, or with an emotion or intention, songs can send us back in time to a memory indelibly linked to a lyric and tune, or an instrumental composition. Music is powerful medicine, too. Stanford University researchers showed that “listening to music seems to be able to change brain functioning to the same extent as medication.” A good dose of music with a tempo of 60 beats-per-minute invites alpha brainwaves, those that are recorded when we’re relaxed. Similar findings published in Scientific Reports confirmed that gentle, familiar nature sounds reduce the fight-or-flight response, stimulating the parasympathetic system and slightly affecting heart rate. It’s well documented that lifestyle habits affect our health: whole, fresh foods, regular exercise, smoking cessation and stress management support a strong immune system, our defense against disease. So, relieve stress with a restorative walk in nature or a few minutes listening to soothing music, a prescription to help us “carry on and be calm” while we strive to make the world better for all.

Hook an opera diva up to an MRI machine and what do you get? For starters, some intriguing research results into how music and our brains work together. Superstar soprano and National Medal of Arts recipient, Renee Fleming, has shepherded and participated in Sound Health: Music and the Mind, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in association with the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Fleming and NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD are bringing musicianship and neuroscience together in a study that looks at music, health and well-being. In an interview with Stanford’s Paul Costello, executive editor of Stanford Medicine, Fleming shared: “I went to the NIH and participated in an MRI imaging study that actually looked at my brain when I was performing. It’s an incredibly fascinating scan and it’s remarkable how much the brain is activated by music. It has a broader impact on the brain than almost any other activity.” She told Costello her goals for the initiative include bringing a wider awareness and support to music therapy as a discipline. “The second [goal] is to educate the public and enlighten people about the power of music to heal,” she said. To read the interview, go here.