Me and My Freedom (Part 2)

Ah! Hello and welcome back to my blog. If you missed the first part of this blog post you can find it here.

Now…where were we? Oh yes, our young (now kind of ex-) doctor and yoga teacher was working in corporate and had become inflicted with an idea. An idea to open up a yoga studio…

As soon as this idea bug got me I struggled to shake it. I was working in a tech company in Centurion while living in Jozi and while my work was tolerable and I wasn’t as stressed and depleted as I had been as a doctor, all I could think about was my dream. I had no capital in my bank account except a small amount of savings and no real plan but for some reason I had a strong sense that this yoga studio would become reality.

To make sure this desire wasn’t just a flight of fancy or a desire simply for something new, I decided to advance my yoga teacher training and did a 500hr training with Shakti Yoga Center. My teacher training deepened my love for yoga but doing it while also working in Centurion and living in Jozi, I began to realise how racial bias and a lack of representation in the yoga and wellness world was shaping how I saw this practice that I loved so much.

.

.

While I had almost always been one of the only students or yoga teachers of colour in my classes, in the past I had managed to ignore sticking out, but now that I was actively seeking out a community of people who thought like me and looked like me and did yoga….I couldn’t find them.
Feeling other in a space that should connect and include everyone and bring you peace is a strange feeling. I would often wonder if my thoughts where going against what I had been taught. Thoughts like “this is just my ego creating drama” would go through my mind. I would tell myself that I needed to get to a point in my practice where I transcended being bothered about racial issues. But the more I tried not to see colour in the yoga scene the more privilege and exclusivity where shoved into my face… I didn’t belong. People like me didn’t belong and trying to ignore it just made me feel like I was part of the problem.

After a lot of contemplating and meditation, I finally came to the conclusion that what I was experiencing was wrong, that yoga should be a practice for everyone and that yoga studios should actively make an effort to be safe spaces for ALL. Once I had wrapped my mind around that, it became abundantly clear that this was I wanted to do – to create an inclusive yoga studio where EVERYONE felt safe, at home and seen, not regardless of their colour, culture, sexual orientation, physical ability, age or gender…but because of it! I didn’t want to create a “tolerant” space. I wanted to create a space that celebrated difference. It was then that the idea of The Nest Space was born.

I spent my evenings dreaming of a studio with predominately teachers of colour, of a space where people would feel at home and want to stick around and chat after their classes. Of a space that was full of light and plants and music from this amazing continent. A space that felt like it was made for the modern and conscious African yogi. I dreamt and journaled and visualised every single detail without knowing when or how it would happen. I saw The Nest based in an old house with the yoga studio on the bottom floor and alternative therapist rooms on the top and the more details I dreamt of the more inspired I became.

.

.

In my past time I would lazily scroll through Property24 looking at beautiful houses for sale and imagining my dream happening within them. Until one day I saw an ad for a rental space in Greenside. It was on a busy street, it wasn’t a house and I had no concrete plans but something crazy in me told me to go have a look and because I had learnt to trust “crazy” Anesu… I did.

I organised a viewing and as soon as I stepped foot into the space I got goosies and knew that I had found the perfect spot for my yoga studio. It was a mess with dark purple walls, holes in the floor and dust EVERYWHERE but it also had wooden floors, loads of windows and pressed ceilings. I was in love.

I had no business plan or clue of what I was doing but for some reason I felt completely capable and supported. I decided to use my savings for the deposit and first few months of rent, registered The Nest Space Pty Ltd as a business and spent the next few weeks making mood boards, renovating, painting, shopping in thrift stores, having cushions and yoga bolsters made, doing financial forecasts and cash flow projections and finding the best yoga teachers and therapists of colour I knew.

.

.

After about 2months of crazy work, sleepless nights and aloooot of leaning on my partner (Fez) for support, I opened up The Nest Space Yoga studio and Wellness Center. Our first class was on the 4th of August 2018 and as soon as I welcomed people into the space that day, although I was still working in corporate, I knew I had found not only my freedom, but also my purpose.

.

.

The Nest Space has since been featured in The Sunday Times, Mail and Guardian (twice) and Sowetan Newspapers. We have been interviewed on Power Fm and have had multiple interviews on ENCA and Newzroom Afrika. We have the MOST amazing and kind community and are about to do our first ever yoga retreat (which is 2 spots away from being sold out!). I still can’t really believe that all of this has come from my idea and leap of faith but, it does feel like it is what I was born to do.

.

.

There is still so much of this story to tell; things like how I met my business bae Banesa who has helped The Nest become the power house that it is today, and how I now somehow also own and run a vegan cafe and zero waste grocer (saying that still feels surreal). However, I like to tell stories slowly and with care so those stories will be for next time.

So on that note, until the next one, stay blissful dear reader. Here is a short video showing the beginning of the journey of The Nest Space and my journey to realising my dream 🙂

Remember to trust in yours. Dreams are worth believing in.

.