News

How to Make Gratitude a Daily Habit

July 08, 2021 - 06:05 AM It’s easy to focus on what we want rather than what we have. But when we shift our awareness to the present moment, we begin finding moments of gratitude in everyday life. We tend to talk about gratitude as a way of expressing thanks—thanks for a meal, an event, or an act of kindness. Following the lead of researchers in the field of positive psychology, the definition of gratitude is a little more broad. We define gratitude as the conscious appreciation of any aspect of our life experience. Sonja Lyubomirsky, on the other hand, offers a more poetic description: “It is wonder; it is appreciation; it is looking at the bright side of a setback; it......

Top 5 Benefits of Listening to Positive Music

July 01, 2021 - 06:05 AM Can you imagine living a day without music? I can’t, and I’m not alone. Americans listen to 4 hours of music every day. There’s no other activity that we do that takes up as much of our time as listening to music, besides work and sleep that is. Despite music taking up such a significant part of our lives, we rarely stop to think about the quality of the music. We care deeply about the other things we consume like food and TV. You likely avoid specific restaurants for being unhealthy, and change the channel as soon as certain TV shows come on. Yet, we rarely stop to think about the positive and negative influence of the music we listen to. “Music can change the......

10 Benefits of Listening to Relaxing Music

June 29, 2021 - 06:05 AM Maybe you have your own playlist of relaxing music. You turn it on when you need to calm your mind. Music can make us feel so wonderfully peaceful. It produces serotonin to relieve our stress and relieve physical pain. It’s always there for us. And it’s not a coincidence. Music has a huge impact on our brain, and relaxing music does actually make us feel better. For example, there is a well-known theory — though it’s not yet empirically proven — about the good that a frequency of 528 Hz can do to our body. It’s called the Solfeggio frequency, originally used in Gregorian chants. Whether it’s healing or not, what we do know......

Music Therapy as an Alternative Cancer Treatment

June 24, 2021 - 06:05 AM What do we know about music therapy for cancer patients? We know that music has a large effect on us in general. It can make us smile when we're feeling stressed. It can take us out of a robotic "do" mode and put us in touch with our "feeling side." But what about people living with cancer? Do studies tell us what our hearts do—that music can make a difference? Research hasn't disappointed and seems to say that the sound of music really does help people climb the mountains we call cancer treatment. It can even cause our hearts to beat—not like a bird—but in healthier ways. There are now 30 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers that offer music......

Music Therapy

June 21, 2021 - 06:05 AM What Is It Cross-cultural beliefs have long held that music has a healing effect on mind and body. Music can promote relaxation and distract from pain associated with many illnesses. It can also relieve anxiety and distress. Music therapy emerged as a formal discipline in the US in the 1940s, as methods of increased effectiveness became clearer. Currently, there are close to 8,000 trained therapists in the US alone, with thousands more worldwide. Passive forms of therapy may be used to reduce stress before procedures or ease transition from sedation. More active forms are used for rehabilitation, enrichment, and simple enjoyment. Patients may listen to, play, and even write their own......

Music as Medicine: The Healing Power of Music

June 17, 2021 - 06:05 AM The late neurologist, Oliver Sacks in his book “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain,” argued that music is essential to being human in ways that we’ve only begun to understand. Music stimulates the brain centers that register reward and pleasure, which is why listening to a favorite song can make you happy. There is in fact no single musical center in the brain, but rather multiple brain networks that analyze music when it plays, thereby giving music the power to influence everything from our mood to memory. For cancer patients, music can be a powerful therapeutic tool in coping with a cancer diagnosis and treatment. “Music was so......

10 Simple Ways to Bring Peace to Your Day

June 15, 2021 - 06:05 AM There’s a Zen koan that says: Meditate for an hour every day unless you are too busy. In that case, meditate for two hours. I think of this line frequently when people tell me they are “too busy” for mindfulness. The parents and teachers and students I work with describe days of perpetual motion: school and work and activities and errands and meals-on-the-run…. “I just feel like I never have a moment to stop!” they tell me. This makes me think, “If you don’t have a single moment to stop, then you need at least 60 moments!” Very few of us likely have an entire hour or two to devote to......

The Uses and Benefits of Music Therapy

June 11, 2021 - 06:05 AM What is music therapy? Sound healing therapy uses aspects of music to improve physical and emotional health and well-being. The person being treated partakes in the experience with a trained practitioner. Music therapy may involve: listening to music singing along to music moving to the beat of the music meditating playing an instrument Healing with sound is believed to date back to ancient Greece, when music was used in an attempt to cure mental disorders. Throughout history, music has been used to boost morale in military troops, help people work faster and more productively, and even ward off evil spirits by chanting. More recently, research has linked music to a number of......

9 Health Benefits of Music

June 08, 2021 - 06:15 PM Music can improve mood, decrease pain and anxiety, and facilitate opportunities for emotional expression. Research suggests that music can benefit our physical and mental health in numerous ways. Music therapy is used by our hospice and palliative care board-certified music therapist to enhance conventional treatment for a variety of illnesses and disease processes – from anxiety, depression, and stress, to the management of pain and enhancement of functioning after degenerative neurologic disorders. Max Lerman, Hospice and Palliative Care Music Therapist from Spiritual Care and Music Therapy at NorthShore, highlights some of the benefits music has on health and......

A Mindful Minute: 10 Simple Ways to Bring Peace to Your Day

May 24, 2021 - 08:30 PM Meditate for an hour every day unless you are too busy. In that case, meditate for two hours. I think of this line frequently when people tell me they are “too busy” for mindfulness. The parents and teachers and students I work with describe days of perpetual motion: school and work and activities and errands and meals-on-the-run…. “I just feel like I never have a moment to stop!” they tell me. Which makes me think, “If you don’t have a single moment to stop, then you need at least 60 moments!” Very few of us likely have an entire hour or two to devote to meditation and stillness each day, but......

News

How to Make Gratitude a Daily Habit

Top 5 Benefits of Listening to Positive Music

10 Benefits of Listening to Relaxing Music

Music Therapy as an Alternative Cancer Treatment

Music Therapy

Music as Medicine: The Healing Power of Music

10 Simple Ways to Bring Peace to Your Day

The Uses and Benefits of Music Therapy

9 Health Benefits of Music

A Mindful Minute: 10 Simple Ways to Bring Peace to Your Day

On Air

Find Us

The Team

Lora Cain

Ed Bazel

Terry Anderson

Julie Gates

Catherine Carter

Last photos

The River of Calm Livestream Holiday Concert 2020

The River of Calm Live Stream Concert March 2022 - Flutist Sherry Finzer

The River of Calm Holiday Live Stream Concert 2021

The River of Calm Live Stream Concert Series July 2021 - 10X1

The River of Calm Live Stream Concert Series March 2020 - David Nevue

Our Podcasts

The River of Calm Beyond The Music Podcast - Ed Bazel

The River of Calm - Beyond The Music Podcast - featuring Danielle Archer of The Artist Minds - Fear

The River of Calm - Beyond The Music Podcast - featuring Danielle Archer of The Artist Minds - Imposter Syndrome

The River of Calm Playlist - Study & Chill

The River of Calm Playlist - Chill Music To Study To

Contact us