Meet Kavita Bianchetti.
Like many of us, I have been practicing yoga for years. And, like many of us, I was introduced to it after incurring a fairly serious injury (mine a disagreeable disc between L4 & L5). That was twenty years ago, and I’ve been chasing pigeon pose ever since.
Yoga has become an integral part of my routine for selfcare, both in body and in mind, and I’ve been an ardent student of Kavita Bianchetti since she came to us at cityhomeCOLLECTIVE earlier this year. See, Kavita, and the gift she offers, is part of our commitment to community–free classes and workshops dedicated to helping others connect and heal and find safety.
Kavita is one of those teachers who inspires you to do things you never thought you could while simultaneously scaring the shit out of you. She’s the real deal, and there’s something ancestral about her style of yoga.
It’s as if she’s tapping into something ancient with her poses and sequences.
Recently, I sat with Kavita to learn more about who she is and her relationship with yoga.
ME: You’ve been practicing yoga, specifically Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine) for as long as you can remember. Why is yoga so important for you?
KAVITA: I feel a sense of calm when I practice yoga. More simply put, it keeps me sane. But more than that, it has become a way to connect with and express myself.
My mat is a place where I can be authentically me.
ME: You told me you are from India. What brought you to Utah and what keeps you here?
KAVITA: My husband's job took us here. What keeps me is the beautiful landscape all around. The skiing, hiking, camping and the almost perfect four seasons are just amazing. In short, the quality of life is unparalleled.
ME: Totally agree. I am not a Utah native and never imagined I would come to call this place home, but the deserts here have my soul. What can I say? I’m curious, what does home mean to you?
KAVITA: A place I can wake up to and have a peaceful morning with my family.
ME: And what about the favorite place you have lived?
KAVITA: It has to be Goa-India where I was born. I lived there for the first 10 years of my life. Beautiful beaches and fields and forests with peacocks. There were the best of fruits to pluck like the cashew fruit.
ME: Forests with peacocks? Sounds divine. Tell me what your perfect day looks like.
KAVITA: A good night of sleep. A good cup of coffee. My yoga practice. Time under a tree with my daughter listening to stories with a cool breeze blowing. Ending the day with some good food.
ME: That’s about the essence of it, isn’t it? The sustenance of life–sleep, nourishment, family. We often talk about how our bodies are our true home, and we understand that yoga is not, at the root of it, about making our bodies ‘bendier’. So, how does a practice like yoga play into this idea of our physical forms being sanctuaries?
KAVITA: This is a very tricky question. Most of us, including me, probably will never reach the place of Nirvana, that place in my mind's eye of a sage meditating under the tree, totally enlightened, maybe in Lotus or Tree pose. But in our modern life, this is impossible to achieve, yet the idea that this is possible does in itself makes the practice worthwhile. And if you practice long enough, you will achieve this bliss, if for only just a fraction of a second. But then you are on the right path, and these poses or physical movements with our breaths are what opens this path for us. We might get lost at times, but then as soon as we come back to our asanas, we come back to where we belong.
ME: Beautifully expressed. Thank you. Final question: Is there anything you would like to see change here in Salt Lake City?
KAVITA: Well, after having lived here for almost twelve years and having grown to love Salt Lake, I would like to see more diversity here and perhaps more humility within the yoga community.
ME: Diversity and humility. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a healthy and loving community. Thank you, Kavita. See you on the mat.
