Yoga opened the door to contentment for Wayne woman
RADNOR >> Step into Amy Nobles Dolan’s yoga studio and you’ve entered a calm oasis.
Dolan, 52, started practicing yoga when her children were ages 1, 3 and 5 “to get some sanity space for myself. I needed some time away from the kids.”
Her mother, Connie Nobles, had suggested that she try yoga and she took that advice.
“My girls were taking ballet lessons and there was a sign when I dropped them off that they offered yoga there and that’s who I tried first,” said Dolan. “I loved the style of yoga (Amy Gordon) was teaching and I loved her.”
That style, Ashtanga Yoga, has a reputation of being more difficult than others but the Wayne resident found it to be fulfilling.
“I’ve taught it to people of all ages from the oldest, 82, to youngest 5— kindergarteners at Wayne Elementary,” said Dolan.
After three years of practicing yoga, she began teaching it at St. David’s Episcopal Church and still teaches a weekly class there. Over the years, Dolan has taught yoga at five Main Line churches, Radnor High School, Radnor Middle School, Radnor Elementary School and the Radnor Memorial Library.
“I really stuck with it,” she said. “It was making me different as a mother and a wife. I was just more contented, less irritable, calmer and easier for my kids to live with. Instead of trying to control them, I was appreciating who they were and watching them be themselves.
“It was the yoga philosophy that affected me more than the physical practice,” said Dolan. “It teaches us how to be content and how to let go of our need to control and to receive life instead of trying to force life to happen on our terms. And it meshed really, really deeply with my (Episcopalian) faith. And I’ve taught people of all faiths and it works really well with all faiths. If you have a spiritual side, it just takes that so much deeper. And if you don’t have a spiritual side it will probably give you a little bit of one.”
Dolan took yoga teacher training at a school in Chester Springs that suddenly closed in the middle of her program. However, one of the teachers, Sharon Hickey, offered to continue teaching her individually.
“We work together as often as we can,” said Dolan.
“We stayed friends. She helped me coauthor my teacher training curriculum. I run teacher training for yoga teachers. One of my final projects to graduate was writing the programing for teacher training and she and I did that together.”
“I really love it because that is where I get to teach, not just the postures that you see people do, but the philosophy…That’s what affects me most.”
She also teaches a class Yoga and Philosophy at a local university at the suggestion Sally Scholz, one of her yoga students who is a professor, recommended that she try it.
Asked about the tenets of yoga philosophy, Dolan said, these are: nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-possessiveness, moderation, purity, self-discipline, self-study, surrender to a higher power and contentment.
Dolan, who grew up in Texas, Connecticut and northern New Jersey, holds bachelor’s in comparative area studies from Duke University and a master’s degree in international political economics from the University of Virginia. She worked in publishing after completing her degrees.
Dolan met her husband, Jim, a Philadelphia native while both were students at Duke.
Their three children, J.B., 22, Katie, 20, and Sally, 18, are all in college. The Dolans share their home with two English setters and two cats.
When she is not practicing yoga, Dolan enjoys walking her dogs, hiking, gardening, reading mysteries and spending time with her
“It was the yoga philosophy that affected me more than the physical practice. “\It teaches us how to be content and how to let go of our need to control and to receive life instead of trying to force life to happen on our terms. And it meshed really, really deeply with my (Episcopalian) faith. And I’ve taught people of all faiths and it works really well with all faiths. If you have a spiritual side, it just takes that so much deeper. And if you don’t have a spiritual side it will probably give you a little bit of one.”
— Amy Nobles Dola, yoga instructor
family.
Recently, Dolan launched an online master class in yoga philosophy for $180. It features 13 videos and a workbook that she created.
“It’s different in that the students pause the videos and do the reflection exercise and do the 10 main principals of yoga philosophy,” she said. “You learn an astounding about yourself.”
For more information: www.yogawithspirit.com