Trying to Follow the Eight Limbed Path

Sara Hiatt was an 18-year-old looking for a workout to do at home when she bought her first yoga DVD at Target. It was then she realized there was something different about yoga that made it more than just a physical exercise.

“I fell pretty hard for it … It wasn’t like I was going to a gym. It was more of me creating a relationship with myself. It was more of an inner journey,” Hiatt explained. “At the same time, I could see my body getting stronger and I was feeling more alive in a sense, and more connected to myself and the universe around me. It was like a great relationship was being formed. I think that anybody who’s done yoga can attest to it — that something really happens. It’s almost like we’re meant to do it, or at least it’s an aspect of what we’re supposed to be doing.”

After the DVD and moving to Boulder, Colo., she began taking classes at studios. When returning to Northwest Arkansas in 2009, she started practicing at the Arkansas Yoga Center. After just a few months, she decided to take their teacher training program — nine months of lessons and practice — meant to teach a basic, holistic understanding of practicing and teaching yoga.

It wasn’t until two years later that Hiatt thought about teaching on her own, and it began in a studio on Dickson Street in Fayetteville. Her boyfriend at the time saw the space on Dickson and knew it would be a perfect studio. Together, they opened the D Street Collective.

While Hiatt’s first studio space allowed her to build a group of followers and her teaching skills, she wanted to move into a new studio that would allow her to branch out on her own. The Eight Limbed Path opened in June 2013 next to the walking/biking trail off Center Street in Fayetteville. It’s a small space, and Hiatt has made it comfortable with neutral colors, soft lighting and comfortable decor. The classes stay small, which allows Hiatt to answer questions, attend to the individual, and make the atmosphere an all around comfortable place to be.

Hiatt doesn’t have to spend much time promoting through social media or a website, as most of her clients come through word-of-mouth or experiencing her as a teacher through her free classes at Tri Cycle Farms and elsewhere. She focuses on growing her clientele slowly, through personal experience, and expanding her understanding of the age-old practice.

Since opening her own studio she has attended a second four-month teacher training at Yoga Deza, to understand different techniques and styles of teaching and practicing. Hiatt said she has some unique programs in the works, like a night of Indian chanting and singing, and a heart opening workshop. But for now, and most importantly, she offers regular classes throughout the week.

To learn more about The Eight Limbed Path, the teachers who call it home and class times, visit www.facebook.com/The8LimbedPath.