LIFE IS ALL ABOUT CHOICES WE MAKE

“Life is all about the choices we make.” True. isn’t it?

Hello friends I am Priti G. Parab. I am a Sitarist and NLP (Nuero Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner and completed my music therapy course with “Sur Sanjeevan Music Therapy Trust” under mentorship of Pt. Shashank Katti and other reputed and chosen faculties from various fields like Nadiguru Vaidya Sanjay Chajjed – MD Ayurveda, Dr. Ashok Balsekar – Physician, MBBS, Dr. Surekha Pandit – Psychologist, Dr. Rashmi Fadnavis – Gynecologist, Dr. Manoj Bhatawdekar – Psychiatrist and Sandhya tai Khare – Music faculty.

So, friends, in life we need to take decisions on every step. And we need to take ownership of those decisions. Sometimes we get resourceful outcome of our decisions and sometimes it’s learning for us. Recent Covid – 19 pandemic was the phase which tested every human being on different levels, whether it is emotional quotient or physical quotient. Carrier, Finance, Education, Health (on all levels – mental, physical, emotional, social, etc.), Freedom, Peace, Relationships…. everything was on stake. In this phase those who been more flexible were survived and the people who been rigid, faced the problems on various levels. It may be adapting the reality, learning and implementing new methods, finding out new income sources, technological up-gradation, adapting new job culture, different communication mediums, etc. There is a saying “Rigidity is equal to death and flexibility is equal to life.” Some lost hope in this pandemic and some raised from ashes like a phoenix bird and some taken wise steps and decisions to utilize this pandemic time productively.

I did one of the best decisions of my life during this pandemic lockdown phase. It was about joining “Sur Sanjeevan Music Therapy Course” by Pt. Shashank Katti.

My music journey and awareness of music started from my birth only. I really thank God because I belong to the music lover’s family. That too including Indian Classical Music. My father use to sing powadas with well-known Powada artist Shahir Sable. My mother use to sing songs during her school days. My elder sister has done her entire carrier in music from her childhood only. She has done her Masters in Indian Classical Music (Gold medalist) from SNDT University of Churchgate. She is now on advisory committee of “Sangeet Kala Academy” & “Soccer 7 Sport & Cultural Institute” and both these institutes are National Level institutes. She is the only lady programmer in our music industry. My younger brother uses to play tabala. And I chosen Sitar from my childhood (started at age 10 years).

My journey as a therapist started from year 2018 Nov, after doing my NLP course. I purposefully had chosen this as a carrier for 2^nd inning of my life. Currently I am working with International Therapist Mr. Mohammed Rafi, who is a top-rated NLP trainer. (Founder of Magic of Change, Inspiring Citizen) Before doing this course I was unaware of Music Therapy field and scope. But I use to play sitar. Sometimes I use to share my tunes with my close friends and family and they use to love it. Music itself has enormous effects on our mind, body and soul. But playing any ragas tune is not fully therapeutic this I realized after completing my music therapy course.

There is one Buddhist proverb “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” After coming in the therapy field, I got the awareness of various other therapy fields like Yoga, Pranik Healing, Past life regression, Crystal therapy, etc. etc. And one day I saw one post from my schoolmate. It was about Sur Sanjeevan Music Therapy course. And I got curious to know more about it. As I am a Sitarist and started my new path as a therapist, I felt more curious and deeply connected with this Therapeutic field. I felt how amazing it will be if I can do therapies with my music. I searched different sites, you tube videos. Some of my well wishers shared some links and sources as per their knowledge of some other institutes and other music therapists too. I attended some introductory workshops of other institutes to understand the authenticity and market strategy. Finally, I asked for guidance from my Sitar guru Mrs. Rohini tai (daughter of Pt. Malharrao Kulkarni) and my sister Yogita. They both immediately suggested me to go for “Sur Sanjeevan Music Therapy Course” because it is authentic one. Only a guru and an experienced person can show you a right path. And I finalized my decision.

I enjoyed each lecture of my course. We studied, we practiced, we researched. There are joint researches and studies done on different levels by Katti Sir and other faculties who are with Sir since long. We also been a part of “Covid - 19 Project conducted by Sur Sanjeevan Music Therapy Trust.” It was a nice experience for us as a student and results were amazing. It was published in newspaper too.

Katti Sir has beautifully and thoughtfully crafted this course. The compilation of various subjects which will help any common person to understand about anatomy, psychology, neurological effects on our mind and body, correlation of Music, Ayurveda and Neuroscience, basic knowledge of diseases and disorders, gynecological knowledge, etc. He has chosen experts from each domain to train us which again shows his willingness to give the best to his students. He personally paid attention in such lectures too, which was conducted by other outside faculties. They use to tell us about their expertise field and then Katti Sir use to explain us in detail how we can link it with our music therapy principles. It was very interesting to know and study the connection of music with ayurveda, energy, brainwaves, hormones, mind and body mood and state.

Our batch was a good mix of musicians and doctors. Because of this mix we all got benefited by each other’s queries. And as I mentioned before, this course is designed in such a way that any non medical field candidate will get necessary awareness about human mind and body along with diseases and disorders and any medical field candidate will get good practice of Indian classical ragas. Though it is not all in depth but it is sufficient knowledge for a student to start their music therapy journey. You don’t need to be a great performer in music to do this course. But of course, you need basic knowledge of music and need to have willingness to practice and study the concepts sincerely. Therapeutic music is different than performance music. It is basically not for entertainment like performance music. It is specifically designed with proper awareness and our ingredients are ‘Surs’ (musical notes). That is the reason we don’t call this raga therapy. Our emphasis is on surs, which is nothing but sound energy. And we know the rules to influence these energies to get the desired effects on person’s mind and body.

After our exams we also done study project. In that we designed our own Suravalis Suravalis are the therapeutic tunes which we create with the use of Surs played in particular manner after doing diagnosis of disease or disorder. We consider Ayurveda’s principles and neuro sound science techniques while doing it. And then recorded and used it on different patients to see the results. I personally worked with Arthritis, Bronchitis, Diabetes, Psoriasis, Acidity, Kidney Stone, Lumber Canal Stenosis, Constipation, IBS, Insomnia, Depression, Anger and many other disorders. And now aiming to reach more people to give benefits of this unique and painless therapy.

My journey is not over. It has started and will continue...