Sebastien says

When I was little, I didn’t know what I wanted to ‘be’ when I grew up. People at school and friends of my parents were always asking me what I wanted to dedicate myself to, and to tell you the truth – it was always a question that bothered me. Why did it matter so much?

At 16, when I was old enough to get a job, I worked with kids during the summers and holiday periods, then afterwards I worked for a few years in clubs in Paris. When I came to Ibiza in 2004 I worked in a restaurant (the worst experience ever!), then opened a shop with my friend, before finally, I opened Hot Yoga Ibiza studio in 2009.

I didn’t know I was going to become a yoga teacher. I didn’t plan it. The opportunity to go to teacher training in Hawaii came up when I was quite new to my practice, and I thought why not? It could be fun, I had the time and I had the money. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a teacher or not, but the experience was interesting to me. I thought, when I get back I’ll give one or two lessons and see what happens. I didn’t know if I had the ability inside me or not.

You don’t actually teach a full class when you’re in teacher training, you just teach one or two poses to a room of about 50 people. Your first official class doesn’t take place until you get back and are in your studio in front of real live students. I had no idea what it would be like. But you never know until you try, so when I came back and gave my first class, and my ego was constantly telling me it was bad. And oh my god… it was not good!

I just did what I could, but all I could think about was the dialogue, and not being able to give corrections at the same time. In my head I couldn’t even see the students. I think because I was teaching at my old yoga studio, and I knew most of the students, it made me more nervous. Their feedback was that I was really flat, so I had to work at changing my style – but in the end it’s like anything. The more you practice, the better you get. I taught a second class, and a third and another…

The more I gave the dialogue, the more I was able to forget about it, and start to be able to switch in and out of the dialogue and corrections. It started to come a lot more naturally. Eventually I felt a real connection with teaching – it was when I realised my own teacher wasn’t giving anything to the students through her classes. I thought, I can give more than this, I can run a more professional studio and so I decided to open my own school.

It’s funny – someone once calculated my human design chart and apparently it said I was born to be a teacher of some kind! Now it does feel like something I am meant to do. I try not to think about it, I try to concentrate on what I am doing in the moment. I try to give my best without any expectations or frustrations.