By Nora Heston Tarte
Deb Marweg started practicing yoga 20 years ago, using at-home videos to keep fit during her triathlete offseason. “It was much easier on my body than, you know, the running and the biking,” Deb explains. Today, it is a way of life.
Deb and her husband Bill begin most days with morning breathing and meditation, (she admits she’d be lying if she said it happened daily). It is just one component of the yogi lifestyle she leads.
Deb takes yoga off the mat, allowing it to infiltrate more areas of her life, from how she eats and treats others to how she reacts to stressful situations and finds gratitude in life. “When you take the poses out of it and you look at the philosophies of yoga it’s very easy to see how you could make that part of your everyday,” she says.
The idea of leading a yoga-centric lifestyle was daunting at first, says Deb. The philosophies associated with yoga are deeply rooted in its cultural background, and it seemed unreachable for someone from a western culture. Without living in India, she feared she would never grasp the whole of yoga. “It is such a deep philosophy,” she says.
After enrolling in a yoga therapy class (more for her own benefit than for teaching) that focuses on the emotional connections as opposed to the physical, she found a balance. The class interpreted the ancient teachings and showed her how to logically apply them to her own life.
Despite a long history with the practice, Deb says the passion to teach didn’t strike until she started taking classes in-person. A special education teacher by trade, she found teaching yoga came naturally. At the very least it was an endeavor worth exploring.
A short time after Deb began teaching at other studios, she and Bill decided to open their own. It took one month to go from deciding to take the plunge to opening Now & Zen in 2004. Today, Deb uses the studio to serve her mission of making yoga accessible to everyone.
Moving away from the heavy physical focus synonymous with western cultures, Now & Zen offers adaptive classes in a no-judgment atmosphere. “The whole point of yoga really is to find stillness in the mind and to bring your body back to a place of healthy… it’s important that everyone have the opportunity,” she says.
For More Information:
Now & Zen Yoga Studio
617 S. Lower Sacramento Rd., Lodi
(209) 369-7841
NowandZenLodi.com