Chopra Center Staff Spotlight

Emily Hobgood

What brought you to the Chopra Center and what do you love most about Ayurveda and massage therapy?
A long time ago, before I started working at the Chopra Center, I took a course in Ayurveda as part of my Holistic Health degree. In class I took my first dosha quiz and found out that I was predominately Kapha. I began to carefully study the Kapha dosha and learned that one of the dietary recommendations for Kapha is to limit or avoid meat.

I had been suffering with severe digestive problems since my gall bladder surgery. Nothing I did seemed to help. The pain had been unbearable for more than a year, so what did I have to lose? Right there in class, I said to myself that I would try an experiment: For two weeks I would not eat meat of any kind and see if it helped.

Within three days I had relief, and in one week all my symptoms completely disappeared! Ayurveda was a miracle for me and I had to know more.

While I was at school I met a friend who taught my husband and me the practice of Primordial Sound Meditation. It was such a gift that I’m still thankful for it even to this day.

A few years after we graduated, my friend told me that the Chopra Center had openings for massage therapists. I was so excited to hear the news! I already had some experience with Ayurveda and I had read several of Deepak's books, so I thought it was a perfect match.

My friend and I both interviewed that week and were offered positions. I've been here ever since, with no desire to be anywhere else. This Center is truly where I love being.

My love for massage therapy and Ayurveda has been a part of my life for over eight years now and I can't imagine my life without it. Massage is almost a practical magic, where I can work with my hands, help promote the healing process with others, and sit in awe of the body’s innate ability to heal and transform.

What is your favorite memory as a spa therapist?
I had an experience with a guest that happened several years ago but is still vivid and often brings up deep emotions. I’d been working at the Center for about a year and a half, and was giving an Ayurvedic treatment to a woman. When I started working on her marmas ― the energy points between the quantum mechanical body and the outside world ― she began weeping a little and then started crying harder until she burst into uncontrollable sobs. She was also praying aloud, talking to God and asking, “Why me?”

From my training, I knew that I needed to let her have the experience she had come here to have . . . to hold a safe space for her to feel what she was feeling.

In life, we are often conditioned that when someone gets upset we should try to soothe them with words or hugs, telling them not to cry because everything will be fine. What’s really happening is that we’re trying to make ourselves feel better because we’re uncomfortable just being with someone else’s pain.

I continued the treatment, and she seemed to pass through the emotional stages she’d just been through in reverse. She went from hysterical crying to soft whimpering and back to quiet. When we were done, I left the room to let her rest and told her I’d be back in a few minutes.

When I returned, she said, “I have to share what just happened. I have advanced Stage IV cancer and I’ve been working very hard to deal with the energy of this disease. During the treatment, I released all the remaining anger and fear and painful feelings I’ve had about cancer. It’s gone. I’m at complete peace about what is happening to me. I’m done.”

Then she walked out the door and I’ve never seen her again. I hadn’t done anything but hold the space for her experience. I was touched by her story and honored to have worked with her. I will never forget how powerful the work we do is, and I am humbled to be part of the family here.

What is your favorite quotation?
It’s one from H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati: “The attachment itself is painful, not the surrender of it."