Mind medicine.

As soon as I hear the distinctive struum-struum-STRUM — pause — struuum-struuum-struuum of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, I am instantly transported.

It’s the summer of 2020. My soul drops into my backyard. The sun has finally set. My bare feet trek through cold grass.

I’m holding the garden hose and showering my plants after a blistering hot day, and I’m listening to this song on repeat.

In reality, this time period was a troubling chapter of life—I was in the thick of confusion and fear around the pandemic, unsure of what was to come. But while the world was chaotic outside, these solitary moments tending to my yard with this melody filled me with comfort then, and retroactively, still do to this day.

Music is medicine for the mind, and in the ongoing difficulties of life, it is a remedy I personally cannot do without.

In reflecting on how one four-minute song can usher my brain back to such a distinct memory, I’m reminded of the documentary Alive Inside. It explores the work of “social worker Dan Cohen, founder of the nonprofit organization Music & Memory, as he fights against a broken healthcare system to demonstrate music’s ability to combat memory loss and restore a deep sense of self to those suffering from it.”

Throughout the story, we see Cohen and his team visit geriatric patients with mental health challenges such as Alzheimers and dementia; many of them in unresponsive states. Some patients hadn’t spoken in years, but as soon as Cohen’s team placed headphones over their ears and pushed play, magic erupted.

Many patients danced in their hospital beds, sang, recalled memories long forgotten, and wept with joy.

Music undeniably touches our humanity in a deeply sacred way.

It inspires us to dance. It can make us cry. It can help us wrap language around indescribable emotions.

We see in Alive Inside how music interacts with our brains in a way that bypasses obstacles that may block out other means of therapy.

One participant of the documentary shared, “Music has more ability to activate more parts of the brain than any other stimulus.”

Studies show that we are wired to digest music in several areas of our brain and engaging music has overwhelmingly positive benefits such as improving memory and communication, relieving stress, and producing our happy hormone dopamine.

I could get lost in the science of it forever and never get bored, but simply put:

Music is a gift, a tool, and by the looks of it, a human hack to living well.