Background
Alborzian was born on 26 February 1967 in Tehran, Iran, to an English mother and an Iranian father. At that time Tehran was the capital of the Pahlavi monarchy, whose rapid modernization and political repression fueled mounting opposition during the 1970s, leading to the 1979 revolution that ended the monarchy.
In late 1978, as anti-Shah protests dominated the country, his parents sent him to an English boarding school. Boarding schools combined residential living with formal schooling, so pupils lived away from home during the school term. Soon after his arrival in England, a modelling scout spotted him on the street, an encounter that led him toward a career in fashion.
Education
Alborzian attended various boarding schools in England, as well as one year of university, before dropping out and moving to London. Boarding schools in England were residential institutions in which pupils lived and studied during term.
His later training in holistic health took place outside a university setting. He completed the training at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York City, which was founded in 1966 by Swami Satchidananda to teach yoga and meditation. He also took a reflexology master's course at the Open Center in New York City, an institution devoted to holistic and integrative education.
Career
Alborzian began work as a fashion model on the runways of Paris in 1986. Alongside Jean Paul Gaultier, he worked for other designers such as Dior and Yves Saint Laurent (YSL). Christian Dior was a French couture house founded in 1946, and Yves Saint Laurent was established in Paris in 1961, both forming part of the city's influential fashion industry during the 1980s.
His work drew wider attention. Madonna chose him as her love interest in the music video for “Express Yourself,” and he later appeared in the 1997 music video for Elton John's “Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” which also starred Kate Moss. Guess, the American denim label founded in 1981, featured him in a three-season campaign beginning in 1988.
In 1998 he ended his career in fashion after joining Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Kate Moss on a visit to Nelson Mandela in South Africa for a charity event benefiting the Mandela Fund. Mandela had led South Africa's transition to majority rule and was then the country's president.
After leaving modelling, he undertook studies in holistic health. In 2003 he began ongoing studies in Ayurveda at the Arsha Yoga Vidya Peetam Trust in Coimbatore, a city in Tamil Nadu in southern India. As a practitioner, he works with clients through Ayurvedic and yogic therapies, diet guidance, and herbal remedies aimed at mental, physical, and spiritual health.
His work as a practitioner has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, The Dr. Oz Show, E! Entertainment, Access Hollywood, and Extra. He has also been written about in The New York Times, The Times of London, Men's Journal, Vogue, Elle, and Gentlemen's Quarterly, and he contributes to The Huffington Post, an online news outlet founded in 2005.
His first English-language book, The Guru in You, was released by HarperCollins in January 2011, and HarperOne published it in December 2010. The One Plan, a fifty-two-week program based on the teachings of Patanjali and the Ayurvedic medical system, followed from HarperOne in 2013. His Spanish-language book, Ahora es el momento: contemplación para el investigador espiritual, was published in Barcelona by Ediciones Martínez Roca in 2005.
Views
In his writing, Alborzian presents Ayurveda and yoga as paths to health and balance. The One Plan structures a year of daily practice around the teachings of Patanjali and Ayurvedic principles, and its introduction describes yoga's philosophy as a concise body of wisdom developed over two thousand years.
His approach emphasizes that each person can heal through a personal practice rather than a single fixed program. The Guru in You states that the capacity to heal exists within each person and that a practice suited to individual needs can improve daily habits of eating, sleeping, working, and exercising.
Connections
Alborzian's mother was English and his father was Iranian. During his modelling career he worked alongside Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington, and Madonna selected him for the music video for “Express Yourself.” These professional associations connected him with the fashion and music industries of the late 1980s and 1990s.
