Inspiring News Stories
Excerpts of Highly Inspiring News Stories in Major Media
Below are one-paragraph excerpts of highly inspiring news stories from the major media. Links are provided to the original stories on their media websites. If any link fails to function, click here. The inspiring news story summaries most recently posted here are listed first. You can explore the same list with the most inspiring stories listed first. See also a concise list providing headlines and links to a number of highly inspiring stories. May these articles inspire us to find ever more ways to love and support each other and all around us to be the very best we can be.
In 2023, a stroke transformed Naresh Shanbhag, a 53-year-old smooth-talking sales professional in Bengaluru, into someone who was unable to speak words, let alone sentences. Initially, when a doctor friend suggested music therapy, Shanbhag thought it would be interesting, but was skeptical that listening to songs would help him recover. That skepticism disappeared right away. "From the very first session, I was hooked," he says. In a soundproof room in India's first music cognition lab at Bengaluru's National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Shanbhag was given simple rhythms and beats to emulate. When his therapist noted that he could sing more fluently than he could talk, he asked Shanbhag to sing sentences. "One year later, I still do this," he laughs. "Every morning when I go to fetch milk and groceries, my shopping list is a song that I belt out!" The lab is run by Shantala Hegde, a professor of neuropsychology as well as a trained classical vocalist. She and her team of researcher-collaborators and PhD scholars provide rehabilitation services to dozens of patients per month who have brain injuries like Shanbhag. "Music is a powerful tool for neuropsychological rehabilitation because you engage the entire brain to engage with it," Hegde says. "We give them specific musical exercises that engage the entire brain, activate different brain areas and strengthen the connections between them," Hegde clarifies.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.
