Wellness Corner: Discussing Holistic Health And Wellbeing

In this introductory segment to the SAFM Wellness Corner, radio host Asanda Beda and I discuss holistic health and the importance of physical wellbeing while introducing this series of conversations centered around the topic of holistic health and healing.

Transcript

4.

45 is our time.

Oh man,

We only have 15 minutes left before we get out of here.

Today I know,

Man.

I don't want to leave.

I got so used to leaving at 6.

Anyway,

That song there,

Jamie Cullum with I Am All Over It.

Thank you for staying with us here on SFM Sound Awake.

We talk about wellness and physical health now.

And the Nest Space ZA is what we're zooming in on.

Now,

The Nest is an inclusive wellness space offering holistic health services to all.

It is a space built around the values of inclusivity,

Simplicity,

Fair representation,

Freedom of self-connection,

Community harmony,

Self-celebration and self-expression.

They have a yoga studio,

Alternative healing therapy room,

Vegan cafe and zero waste grocer.

The Nest believes in the power of holistic well-being and have created a space that can be your escape,

Giving you the space and time to slow down,

Connect and heal yourself in every way from the inside out.

The Nest also offers online courses for aspirant yoga and meditation teachers and provides a wealth of resources to help beginners to start their journey to wellness.

So we welcome Dr Annese Mpizo,

Medical doctor,

Yoga and meditation teacher and entrepreneur.

How are you doing,

Doctor?

I'm so good,

Asunder.

Thank you so much.

How are you today?

I'm good.

Thank you so much.

I get so excited when you talk of wellness and physical health.

It's my favorite feature.

One of my favorites.

Yeah,

I'm so glad.

I'm so glad.

People tend to think that health is kind of like a grudge topic,

You know,

But it's good to see that changing now as people become more excited about wellness and more excited about their well-being and healing.

Absolutely.

So tell us in terms of yoga,

What did you know,

What the benefits of it are for those who don't know of this form of wellness?

So yoga is essentially a holistic wellness practice where you get a bit of physical benefits because you're exercising and moving your body.

But you also get a lot of mental health benefits.

Yoga is known to reduce stress,

To help to calm anxiety.

And then it also helps to bring in more spiritual well-being and spiritual health,

Whatever that may mean to you,

Regardless of your religion.

So it's very much about combining mind,

Body and soul to try to heal past traumas,

To become more in tune with the present moment.

And once you've healed to then start to prepare for living your best life in the future.

How did you start with yoga?

So I started yoga quite early when I was young.

I remember being about five or six and my family was living in Zimbabwe at the time.

And my mom had a little group that she used to do yoga with on Saturday mornings at the cricket club.

And I remember her taking me with her once or twice.

And I don't quite remember what used to happen during those sessions.

But I remember the final moment at the end where you lie on your back in relaxation and that feeling kind of stayed with me.

So I didn't do yoga for quite a while after my childhood.

And then back in medical school when I was in varsity,

I started finding that I needed a physical outlet that wasn't competitive because medicine is already quite competitive as it is.

And so I went back to yoga and I found that it was really helping me cope with my stress while also giving me that movement aspect that I thought I was missing in varsity.

Awesome.

So it's been a while.

You can practically fold yourself into a suitcase.

I'm so flexible.

I'm not there yet.

I'm not there yet.

Talk to me in 20 years.

Maybe then I'll be doing the suitcase thing.

So what inspired you then to open your own studio?

You know,

Asanda,

One of the main things that I experienced both as a medical doctor but as a yoga student was that I really wanted to feel safe when I was doing my healing.

Whether I was going to the doctor for physio or during my yoga practice,

I really wanted to feel like I could be vulnerable and be completely myself.

And what I started experiencing in the yoga studios that I was going to was although yoga is a practice that comes from the east,

Or if you look even further back,

It actually can be traced back to being an African practice.

A lot of the yoga studios that I was in were predominantly white spaces,

Predominantly privileged spaces.

And as a person and woman of color,

I often felt quite unseen and often triggered in spaces where I was actually looking for healing.

And it was going through that experience that really made me feel like what was needed for women of color who were searching for healing was a safe space where regardless of people's ethnic backgrounds,

Ages,

Body types,

Body size,

Gender,

That people just felt like they could be fully and wholly themselves so that they could focus specifically on their self-healing.

And that was the real inspiration behind the next space.

Awesome.

I'm glad you did it.

I'm glad you went ahead and opened it because,

Yes,

You know,

Look at what you're offering now.

Yeah,

It's been one of those incredible journeys where I think our business journey mirrors my own journey in healing where we started off with just our yoga studio and our therapy room.

But then people who are coming to yoga started asking us about what they could eat or the things that they could buy,

How to take care of their skin and their bodies.

And that's why we then expanded to our little vegan cafe in our zero-waste grosser.

And then further down along the line where people were getting more into the yogic lifestyle,

They then wanted to bring it more into their lives by learning more about yoga philosophy,

Maybe even becoming yoga teachers themselves.

And so that's been the next step in our journey now where we offer yoga teacher training and short courses so that people can really inform themselves about the practice.

When it comes to those courses on yoga and meditation teaching,

What do you look for then in the people that come forward?

Is there a specific character or temperament a person must have for you to want to work with them?

You know,

Most of our courses,

We allow them to be quite open because people sometimes would like to do the courses because they would like to teach,

Whereas on the other hand,

There are a lot of people who just want to deepen their own personal knowledge and personal practice.

So we pride ourselves on being inclusive.

So generally we do have applications.

And the main thing that we look for is more people's mindsets around healing and well-being.

Tolerance,

People who have an open mindset,

People who are inclusive of others even in their viewpoints,

That's our main criteria.

And other than that,

It's pretty much open to everybody.

What is a zero-waste grosser is one of the services you offer.

So one of the main things that both me and my business partner are so passionate about is after you enter the healing journey of the self,

You then start to think about healing the world around you and the planet,

Mother Earth as well.

And so we started embarking on the sustainability kind of lifestyle,

Which can be really intimidating,

You know,

Thinking that you as an individual can do something about climate change.

And so what we thought was starting from the very basics,

Looking at how much plastics people consume,

How much plastics people end up throwing away.

And the whole concept behind the zero-waste grosser is to try to minimize our waste as much as possible.

So we have a variety of different products,

Whether it's food,

Non-perishables like grains,

Rice,

Nuts,

Coconut flakes,

All of those yummy things,

Natural and cruelty-free cosmetics,

Toothbrushes,

Bamboo toothbrushes,

Water bottles that are completely biodegradable.

So our entire store is all locally produced,

Zero-waste or biodegradable natural vegan products.

Just to get people,

Yeah,

To give people access to these products and for them to realize that they don't have to be expensive.

It's not for a select few.

And actually as Africans,

This is how our ancestors used to live.

You know,

We weren't a wasteful civilization.

Everything had a purpose and everything had its use.

So it's just reintroducing that concept.

Absolutely.

Some of your principles,

We've read them in the introduction,

Community harmony,

Connection,

Freedom of self,

Simplicity,

Inclusivity,

And then self-celebration and self-expression.

I want to focus on those.

What is the marriage or union between these,

Self-celebration and self-expression?

Well,

I think for myself at least,

My journey of self-healing has really been one of liberation.

And our yoga studio,

Because we're an inclusive space,

We often also play a bit of an activism role in representing what health and healing and well-being look like.

And a big part of that is telling and celebrating people for who they are innately.

Apart from their career,

Apart from their status,

Apart from all of the labels that society puts on each and every one of us,

Getting people to celebrate who they are,

Who they've always been throughout their entire lifetime,

And to celebrate that.

And I think a big part of that,

Especially as Africans,

Is celebrating who we have always been throughout history.

So when we talk about self-healing,

It's often from a decolonized perspective.

It's about looking at how healing has been passed through our generation,

From our ancestors.

And all of that kind of culminates in this beautiful lifestyle where you're conscious of yourself,

You love yourself,

You're conscious of the way you're living your life and the impact you have on the people around you,

And you're able to celebrate who you're becoming through your self-healing journey.

I love everything about this interview.

Can I get your social media handle already?

Of course.

So tell us about that.

Online,

Where can we find you?

So The Nest Space is on Instagram,

Facebook and Twitter at TheNestSpaceZA.

And then our website is www.

Thenestspace.

Co.

Za.

And my personal handles are freedomyoga.

Org.

That's my website or freedom underscore yoga for Instagram and Facebook.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

So Asad,

I hope I'm going to see you at a yoga class sometime soon then.

Yes,

Absolutely.

Is that what this means?

And also can we go and see the studio?

Can we visit the studio before signing up?

Yes.

So we've actually just recently started doing in-person classes in the evenings again.

And it's coming up,

It's kind of brewing,

But we're hoping to open up a little cafe,

Our little vegan cafe again over the weekend in the upcoming weeks.

Awesome.

So people can definitely come and just check out the space.

That's what we love doing is having people just come and sit and chat with us.

I'm going to come.

I'm definitely going to.

And I'll definitely follow you so that I can get your address and everything.

Yay.

Awesome.

I'd love that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for blessing us this morning.

Thank you,

Asad.

Have a wonderful day.

You too.

Thank you.

Dr.

Anis Mpizo,

Medical doctor,

Yoga and meditation teacher and entrepreneur.

So she's the founder of The Nest Space ZA.

And as you heard there,

You can find them in the different social media platforms.

The Nest Space,

The Nest Space ZA and then hers is freedom underscore yoga.

All right.

So that's how we wrap the show up.

It's about three minutes now before we get to the top of the hour,

Which will be five o'clock.

And that's when First Take will take over with Elvis Preslin and the news with Nomsa Mhuli.

Just updating us in terms of what's been happening all about a wrap up,

I guess,

To the Easter weekend.