REVIEW: Toni Bergins — Embody: Feel, Heal (BOOK)
Toni Bergins’ new book is Embody: Feel, Heal, and Transform Your Life Through Movement. In short, the book is a love letter to dance. Bergins traces her philosophy tied to dance as a holistic and self-empowering practice, along with acknowledgements of her own organization JourneyDance. It’s simultaneously something of an artistic statement, and a roadmap to Bergins’ overall philosophy, tied to and independent of the craft.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: https://journeydance.com/toni-bergins/
She writes with this emotive, unpretentious prose, keeping things unapologetic yet her feet on the ground. Naysayers and those skeptical of holistic practices will have to hang up their spurs. What Bergins advocates for is universalist in spirit, grounded, and has elements that can appeal to people of all ideological walks. “Cultures across the world have long recognized the idea that our bodies and spirit are completely connected and interwoven and must be considered in a holistic way.
Think about Chinese medicine, the Hindu chakra system of yoga, the Jewish kabbalah, the medicine wheels of the indigenous peoples of North and South America, and the African dance traditions of storytelling through movement. All of these systems share the idea that we are more than just physical, we are vibrational beings,” she states. “Recent scientific research into these energy systems validates these beliefs. For instance, Candice Pert, PhD, the author of Molecules of Emotion, explains that ‘the chemicals in the body, the neuropeptides, move in vibration. They wiggle, they shimmy, and they even hum’ I love this phrase because our entire body moves just like these chemicals: we are vibrational beings that wiggle, shimmy, and hum. We are a living dance. Masaru Emoto, scientist, and author of The Hidden Messages in Water, compares how people are like molecules of water, interacting on a vibrational level. He writes, ‘Human beings are also vibrating, and each individual vibrates at a unique frequency. Each one of us has the sensory skills necessary to feel the vibrations of others.’”
Bergins then is able to trace things back to a deeply personal place. Once again reestablishing her authority and reliability on the subject through contradictory traits, she talks about her own evolution and process into JourneyDance. Specifically, what spoke to her as an individual about the effectiveness of utilizing the craft, and what she discovered many stands to gain from that process. “I transformed my life when I connected with my vibrational energy,” she writes. “I first explored the mental and spiritual realms, learning about astral projection and soul travel. It was all very interesting, and everything I tried taught me something new, but in retrospect, I can see that I was trying to learn how to ‘leave’ the body.
PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Embody-Feel-Transform-Through-Movement/dp/0757325009
All of my searching eventually led me toward embodiment, and I was finally able to get present and into my body through movement and dance. I found the most meditative experience occurred after all of my emotions were released on the dancefloor. For me, there’s a lingering energy, and when I feel it, I can come into the fullest expression of my being. I can sense my own energy, literally like particles, like bubbles,33 or a streaming liquid light; what you might know as Chi or prana or life force. That’s when I know that I’m no longer living in my head, in the thinking mind. I can literally rub my hands together and feel the energy between my hands.
I can move the energy, see it, and know that I am a spiritual being. I am a soul. I am energy, not just a person with a mind struggling for control.”
Colin Jordan
