My bodyвЂ™s chemistry can not only be altered by exposure to nature or to music, but it can also be changed in my interactions with other people. Developed during the 1980s, вЂњforest bathing,вЂќ or Shinrin-yoku, the art of spending time in a forest to reduce stress and encourage a sense of wellbeing, remains one of the cornerstones of Japanese healthcare. Scientific studies in Japan show that walking in the woods can decrease cortisol levels, decrease blood pressure and heart rate and reduce anxiety. Walking in nature can change the feeling of day-to-day life and rejuvenate the spirit. My connection to the environment influences the experience of being alive. The sound rising from the avenue through his window, he discovered, constantly, subtly changes but nevertheless has a sort of homogeneity that he could enjoy. When he decided to change his way of receiving or perceiving the noise, the dissonant sounds of traffic stopped annoying him. The composer John Cage learned to adapt his listening to the sound of the traffic outside of his apartment building on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. If the force of the stimulus feels too dissonant, the consequence may be disturbing or mildly unpleasant or even excruciatingly painful. The feeling of the present moment can be altered by new perceptions and new sensations engendered by listening. If the force of stimulus in the music is stronger than my weakened inner force, my body adjusts. When I am feeling low, I can put on a piece of music and feel my body and spirits respond and adjust to the new frequencies and temporal patterns. Each of us vibrates to our own particular tune. Our cells and organs all pulsate at a particular frequency and are affected by our general state of well-being: our health, our emotions and our breath. As our brain cells activate, a vibration is set up in the body.

Nothing rests and everything is energy at a different level of vibration. When the powerful, microscopic collisions of a tuning fork hit the eardrum, the brain processes them as a gentle hum. The way a tuning forkвЂ™s vibrations interact with the surrounding air kicks off a chain of impacts that echo through the air and causes sound to form. In musical terminology, resonance is the reinforcement and prolongation of sound or musical tone by reflection or by sympathetic vibration of other bodies. For sound to resonate, it must be deep, clear and strong.

The speed of a tuning forkвЂ™s vibrations is known as its frequency. Striking a tuning fork causes its tines to vibrate back and forth several hundred times per second, setting off a tiny, invisible hurricane. The two prongs of the fork are known as вЂњtines.вЂќ A sound is produced by a body vibrating in sympathy with a neighboring source of sound. If something has resonance for me, it typically means that it has a special meaning or that it is particularly important to me.ДЄm I a tuning fork and do certain external frequencies create particular vibrations in me? And do these vibrations then set off a chain reaction? Do I walk away from a play, a painting or a piece of music better tuned? When I leave a museum after seeing an exhibition, or when I leave a theater after a performance, am I now tuned to a different frequency?ДЄ tuning fork is a small two-pronged instrument used to tune instruments by striking it against something to produce fixed musical pitch. One energetic being influences the vibrations of another. вЂњThis play resonated with me.вЂќ What does that mean? Why does a particular play, painting or piece of music resonate with me, and others do not? The Oxford dictionary defines resonance as, вЂњresponding to vibrations of a particular frequency, especially by itself strongly vibrating.вЂќ Resonance is what ripples and radiates when something is created.

Tuning fork