Missy… Missy… Missy Brown… My first encounter with Missy Brown was when I brought one of my friends children to a Deep Play for Kids workshop at an event in Fairfield, Connecticut. I stood back in awe at how she guided those children, listened to them and allowed them just to be themselves. Then, I had the good fortune to take a Let Your Yoga Dance certification course in Puerto Rico this past March, not knowing that I would have her again as one of my teachers. Missy clearly loves what she does and that comes through loudly. Every word and gesture is a loving gift to the receiver. Missy brings such a stable force when conducting class and creates a safe and secure atmosphere with her presence that is such a blessing for all students. While I have practiced yoga for over 15 years, I am a massage therapist not a yoga teacher. Missy made it extremely easy for me to use my natural body movements along with the yoga postures to enrich my experience during the LYYD dance celebration of the spirit. Bottom line, Missy is a great force to learn from because of her openness and ability to listen not just with her ears but with her heart. She keeps whatever she conveys to you simple and fun. Her joy and passion are contagious. I dare you not to come away wanting more!
The take aways from DPK Foundations weekend is a plethora of creative ideas, strategies and methods for teaching kids, which in turn empowers them to feel more confident and prepared. Missy’s vast experience teaching children also greatly enhances the course to how to motivate and engage children, no matter what you’re teaching them. And of course there is the love!
Having just completed the 80 hour “Let Your Yoga Dance Teaching Training Retreat” with Missy, I remain in awe of all that she gave to me as a participant. Her warm loving presence, combined with her kind and gentle spirt, mixed with her wonderful sense of humor, humility and passion for teaching are some of the many gifts she brought to this in-depth training. Her enthusiasm and joy are infectious and inspirational. She gives the best of herself, so that I could give the best of myself. She helped to create a supportive, sacred and safe space, and a strong community for me to embrace my own fears, honor my body, and quiet my inner critic. She offered creative practices for teaching by helping me understand the power of combining yoga, world music, the chakras, the yamas and niyamas, moving meditation, dance, creativity, self-expression, chanting and Prana/breath. The daily building blocks of these practices seemed to magically transform me into a stronger more confident self. Using Missy’s exercises of “witnessing” how others feel in relation to a specific chakra allowed me to experience the healing powers of the chakras. As others opened their hearts, my own was cracked open in return, and a tremendous amount of healing and growth took place. Without that safe and sacred space, and trust in our community/tribe, this would not have been possible. She taught me that using all of these tools together is an act of healing, grace and pure joy. I look forward to sharing what I learned and spreading this joy out into the world. None of this would have happened without Missy’s gentle guidance and huge heart for which I’m forever grateful.