I recently experienced the trauma of evacuation alert for one of California’s fires. After racing to dress, pack our bags and load our vehicles, preparing our 95-year-old friend and helping her and her daughter select some can’t-live-without valuables, we were exhausted. For two days after the threat passed, I still felt like I was moving as if under water—not only because we woke up to smoke at 3 am, either. Imagine how the firefighters must feel after so many days and too many fires. How grateful we are for their skill and fierceness, loyalty and hard work. Uplifters are magic makers.

Force For Good’s monthly newsletter, The Inspirer, and blog posts throughout the year, celebrate uplifters and their stories in conjunction with our Passions CD, debuting February 2020. FFG will release one film a month: Each musical composition on Passions has a corresponding film that presents an urgent global need and uplifters who inspire us to take action. You can watch the trailers for Harmony and Ice here! But first, as 2019 goes holiday on us, we’ll introduce our FFG team. This month you’ll discover one of our inspirers, Rodney Whittenberg, and see how he makes magic by paying attention: to the people he meets, to their needs, and then conjuring creative projects that fulfill their dreams—and his.

Let’s give thanks every day, not just on Thanksgiving, for all the uplifters in our life.

Hillary Black, Editor, The Inspirer

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.