Chopra Center Staff Spotlight

Danny Alfaro

What brought you to the Chopra Center and what do you love most about Ayurveda and massage therapy?
I do not think I found the Chopra Center . . . it was more like it found me at the right place and right time in my life. About three years ago, I started meditating and learning how to use the power of intention. I set an intention to manifest a job or work situation in a healing environment that would be ideal for me and that would allow me to help others.

I’d applied to be a massage therapist at a hotel, but obstacles kept coming up and I hadn’t received a job offer. I decided that I’d give it another 30 days, and if an opportunity didn’t open up, I would return to my hometown in Utah and look for a position there. As it happened, one evening at the restaurant where I had a temporary job, a man came in wearing a black shirt with a “dancing om” design that caught my attention because of my interest in the Eastern healing traditions. I asked him about it and found out that he was a massage therapist at the Chopra Center.

Even though I was familiar with Deepak’s books, it was the first time I’d heard of the Chopra Center and I was very excited. The 5,000-year-old system of Ayurveda has intrigued me for a long time. In fact, I grew up living an Ayurvedic lifestyle without knowing it. My family was very much into holistic healing and even had a Neti pot, though of course I had no idea back then that cleansing the breathing passages is an Ayurvedic practice. When I was little and got sick, my parents would give me massages with healing herbs and oils. I was literally immersed in Ayurveda from a very young age!

Anyway, everything began to fall into place. It turned out that the Chopra Center had an opening for an Ayurvedic massage therapist, and on the 29th day of the 30-day timeframe I’d set for myself, I was offered the position. It was perfect — a really great example of SynchroDestiny.

What is your favorite memory as a spa therapist?
I don’t really have just one favorite memory because every day I get to come to work and enjoy the people I work with . . . we are very close and we laugh, play, and love what we do. Getting to help others through healing touch and oils makes it easy to come to work!

What is your favorite quotation?
“The human race has only one effective weapon, and that is laughter,” by Mark Twain