Anesu Mbizvo is a trailblazing figure in the world of yoga and holistic wellness – especially when it’s connected to healthy green spaces and produce.
Dr Anesu Mbizvo is founder and co-owner of The Nest Space Yoga Studio and Wellness Center, the first black and female-run yoga and wellness centre in Johannesburg, and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades … most recently named one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans.
Growing up in Zimbabwe before moving to South Africa in her early teens, Anesu’s journey and partnership with nature and plants started at a young age. “All my fondest childhood memories are about finding freedom in the outdoors,” she says. “I could go barefoot, get dirty and it felt like nature would hold me.” She remembers scooping ladybugs and dragonflies out of the pool to save them from drowning… all memories that resonate with what came later in her life – saving human lives, but also forging an independent path.
Anesu became a doctor because she felt an inherent responsibility to preserve life. She believes the body is a conduit for us as humans to connect with the natural world and says: “Learning about the human body excited me because it connected me to nature.”
As a child, family gatherings at her grandmother’s home would end in receiving a plant cutting from her grandmother’s garden as a keepsake of the occasion. This ritual was the beginning of learning plant names and how to grow and position these cuttings in the garden. “It felt like we’d leave carrying a little piece of my gran’s garden as well as a little piece of my gran home with us,” she reminisces.
Garden Day is a reminder that it’s a privilege to have a garden or a little pocket of nature to yourself.
So says Anesu, who is looking forward to setting a harvest table in the garden and inviting her gran for a long, lazy lunch outdoors. “I’m hoping to give her cuttings from my garden this time,” she laughs.
“Gardening and connecting with nature reminds me of the tiny, precious moments in my life,” says Anesu, who has moved out of clinical practice to fully embrace health in a more holistic way with The Nest Space. “The body is a great way for us as humans to connect with the natural world and my life now is about intentionality, well-being and appreciating the small things,” she says. Anesu has begun exploring indigenous and plant medicine with an interest in using distilled balms and tinctures for their health properties. Through this research she continues her journey to broaden her perspective on the potential for medicine and healing.
You’ll find The Nest Space Yoga Studio and Wellness Center at 23 7th Avenue, Parktown North. Details: thenestspace.co.za
Follow @dranesumbizvo on Instagram.
Text: SUPPLIED. Photo credit: Adel Ferreira and Olivia Kensley.
