Several times a year, George Mixis plays his guitar as he walks the hallways of Barrow Neurological Institute where he is employed as a maintenance worker.

Mic spoke to Mixis and Luann Williams, manager of therapy services at the institute, in an article exploring how music can help heal the mind.

Research has found that playing and listening to music activates different neural networks in the brain and causes neurochemical changes. Studies have also found that in postoperative patients, passively listening to soft music led to lower amounts of serum cortisols, the hormones involved in our fight-or-flight response that make us feel stressed.

Read the full story: Here’s how music can help to heal the mind