Chopra Center Staff Spotlight

Gabrielle Forleo

What brought you to the Chopra Center and what do you love most about working here?
I came to the Chopra Center in complete life transition. I had done most of the things in life that one is "supposed" to do in order to experience fulfillment, but there was still the prevailing feeling that there was something missing. With some encouragement from my parents, I decided to attend the Perfect Health program at the Chopra Center to explore deeper levels of meditation and learn more about ayurveda – and in the hopes of revealing what my real professional passion was.

During that week of Perfect Health back in October of 2006, I was able to reconnect with a part of myself I knew was there but didn't know how to access on a consistent basis. I finished that week feeling overwhelmed with gratitude and inspired by the practices I learned and the people I encountered. What could be better than to share that with others as a job? So, it was with that sentiment that my journey as a Program Consultant at the Chopra Center began. I have since become certified as a Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga instructor and have the joy of teaching yogis and yoginis on a weekly basis in Carlsbad and at our events around the globe.

I love working at the Chopra Center because not only do I get to work with some of the most amazing and dynamic people on the planet, I also get to be part of a process that has the power to really transform people’s lives. Week after week, I see people come here to learn the tools of meditation, yoga, and ayurveda. If they choose to allow it, their experience of themselves and the world completely shifts and expands forever. To be a small part of that process is the most rewarding gift I could ask for.

What is your favorite programs consultant memory?

There are too many to choose from! Is it the full parade through the streets of New Orleans at Seduction of Spirit? My birthday celebration with Deepak, David, Snatum Kaur, and the entire Chopra family at Seduction of Spirit in Austin? Sharing beachside memories with davidji and Claire at the SynchroDestiny event in Miami? Or was it our global peace meditation in Dublin, Ireland?

I would say that my favorite memory has to be the celebration dinner on the final evening of Seduction of Spirit in Whistler, BC, in the summer of 2007. We were at a restaurant literally above the clouds, high atop the Blackcomb Mountains looking down on the Canadian village where we had shared an entire week together. I was there with my teammate and close friend Libby and 500 other beautiful beings who had just spent the week meditating and doing yoga, so the energy on that mountain was intoxicating! I remember going out on the deck as the sun was setting on the clouds below me, and feeling as though my life had indeed become as magical as I always knew it could be. There was this profound sense of peace and connectedness with self and other that I had never before experienced. Gratitude!

What is your favorite quotation?
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." ―Henry David Thoreau