Anesu Mbizvo is an experienced 700RYT yoga and meditation teacher, medical doctor and proud Founder and Co-owner of the pioneering inclusive yoga studio and wellness center The Nest Space.
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Anesu is based in Joburg, South Africa and is passionate about inclusivity, body positivity and diversity in yoga and meditation. Having qualified as a 700hr yoga teacher, Anesu teaches tailor made classes specially modified to the needs and desires of her clients and believes that yoga and meditation are practices for all. She is also the lead trainer and program facilitator of The Nest Space Yoga Teacher Training Program which encompasses a 200hr and 300hr Yoga Teacher Course as well as a variety of yoga and wellness based online short courses.
By fusing her knowledge in medicine with her passion of self-acceptance and self-love practices, Anesu spends her time teaching yoga and meditation to a diverse cohort of clients while at the same time advocating for increased accessibility and inclusivity in yoga spaces.
“Anesu” is a gender neutral name with the meaning ‘they are with us’ in Shona. The ‘they’ referred to in this name denotes the Divine, Spirit, God, Ancestors, Prophets or the Universe. Believing that her name is linked to her own life purpose, Anesu draws upon the open ended and non-dualistic nature of her own name by ensuring that her teachings and life offerings are non-secular and rooted in a form of African spirituality inclusive of all belief and knowledge systems.
Anesu has a wealth of yoga teaching experience and has been teaching vinyasa, hatha, meditation and yin yoga for roughly 6years. She currently teaches both studio based yoga classes and private yoga classes (with both able bodied students and students with medical challenges that inhibit them from practicing in group settings) and also has experience teaching yoga and meditation for corporate clients, events and retreats.
When it comes to yoga, Anesu’s main emphasis in every class is self-acceptance- she structures her classes and teachings around ensuring that each and every student learns to accept themselves and their body fully, aiming to enable students to see themselves in their True image- perfect, whole and complete. Anesu’s teaching style is not only focused on the physical practice of asanas. Instead, drawing from her own personal experience, Anesu teaches yoga as a journey back towards the Self and a learning that the real purpose of life is to rediscover one’s true Being and the fact that we are all connected.
Anesu is the proud founder and co-owner of The Nest Space Yoga Studio and Wellness Center, which is built around the ethos of inclusivity- showing her community that yoga is for all bodies regardless of color, ability, size, age, gender or sexual orientation. The studio offers daily yoga and meditation classes, yoga teacher training programs and short courses as well as holistic therapies such as reiki, reflexology, massage and hypnotherapy to their clients and is the first of its kind in South Africa.
The Nest Space also consists of a vegan cafe and zero waste grocery offering Nest clients a holistic conscious living lifestyle that is affordable, sustainable and convenient all in one. Anesu and her business partner Banesa both believe that a sustainable lifestyle (both in terms of diet and waste reduction) is no longer a luxury but instead a necessity for the survival and functioning of the planet, and so have made sustainability a key facet to both their own personal lives and the running of their business.
Anesu, Banesa and The Nest Space have been featured in The Mail & Guardian, The Sunday Times, Destiny Magazine and Bona Magazine as well as on ENCA, Newsroom Afrika and Power FM for their work to make yoga and conscious sustainable living accessible to people of color and their community as a whole.
TESTIMONIALS
Anesu has been featured in/on the following publications:
SUNDAY TIMES NEWSPAPER
“These young black women are changing the face of yoga” -18 November 2018 READ HERE
MAIL AND GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER
“Birds of a feather: Yoga to find yourself” -30 November 2018 READ HERE
“A zero-waste, vegan love nest” -21 November 2019 READ HERE
TROUW NEWSPAPER
View online article in dutch here
View translated article here
BONA MAGAZINE
“5 minutes with yoga instructors Anesu Mbizvo and Banesa Molauoa Tseki” – 15 January 2020 READ HERE
ENCA NEWS CHANNEL
“What comes to mind when you hear the word yoga?” – 18 February 2019 WATCH HERE
“Going Vegan” – 10 November 2019 WATCH HERE
VOICES OF AMERICA
“Meet the Afri-Vegans: South Africa Slowly Embracing Veganism” – 22 January 2020 READ HERE
“Many South Africans Welcome a Vegan Lifestyle” – 15 February 2020 READ HERE
Anesu is also the owner of the natural zero-waste skin brand VEDU (coming soon) as well as interior design, website design and shop fitting company THE SPACER. Click on each brand logo below to learn more about each company.
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Customer Reviews
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“I predominantly practice meditation and kundalini yoga and often avoid practices such as Vinyasa as I can’t seem to connect the union of breath and movement at such a fast payment. Not in Anesu’s class, she has made me fall in love with Vinyasa Yoga, her gentleness is apparent during the most challenging of postures and her knowledge of yoga and our bodies as a whole has her at the forefront of one of the best yoga teachers I have had the privilege of practicing with. I could write a dissertation on her class but for now I’ll leave it at “you being in the safest and most powerful hands possible”
“An absolutely amazing class, coming from a very structured strength based training background I found these classes to be great because of the references to the anatomy engaged but also not to saturated with knowledge so as to confuse those not so inclined”
“I am grateful to have met Anesu. She teaches yoga at my Heal Your Life retreats once a quarter. My clients love her energy and presence. As a yogi of colour she embodies the authentic inclusiveness in her yoga practice. I love her philosophy that yoga is for all and we must begin to find our own experience of spirituality. She is living her purpose”
“I can confidently say that Anesu is the most magnetic yoga teacher! Thank you!”