Like anyone tackling creative, innovative nonfiction, Toni Bergins is an effective storyteller. She’s able to articulate all of the stats and facts, seamlessly embedded into an emotionally affecting, personalized narrative that holds the reader’s attention. Because the themes and messaging she communicates is so universal, it immediately makes the reader feel at ease.
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Then the specificity of the material, concerning an altruistic philosophy related to dance, becomes all the more palatable, even for those uninitiated or skeptical. Bergins draws you in closer with genuine warmth, wit, and candor. One never gets the sense there are any ulterior motives here, or that the book is solely publicity for her enterprise. Bergins really believes in what she preaches, and that’s reflected in a work unusually thoughtful for a self-help genre.
“So many people come to JourneyDance knowing that they’re looking for something, but they
don’t know what that something is. Yet once they experience the somatic benefits of being
embodied, or being fully present in their body, they find that they can tap into their deepest
selves, bringing a confidence to allow their emotions to surface, and face the story (or stories)
that holds them back. It’s only then that they are able to address the past, face the present, and
become empowered,” Bergins writes, near the beginning of her book Embody: Feel, Heal, and Transform Your Life Through Movement. “Embodiment is an action as well as a state of being. When we get into our body, when we decide to be present in our own skin, a whole set of experiences opens up.
You can gain a new perspective on yourself, your life, and the stories that you are telling yourself. You can delight in the world, experiencing a whole range of feelings that have been repressed or suppressed, that need to be felt. Did you know that you can trust your body as a guide? Most of us make decisions using our minds, based on the available facts, ‘thinking through’ our dilemmas, to come up with the right reason. Yet when we live in our minds, we rarely pay attention to our bodily sensations or physical reactions that are also providing useful information. Your body’s wisdom is speaking to you all the time. And if you listen, you can call it self-trust or intuition. What does intuition feel like?
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Have you ever broken out in a sudden sweat, had the sensation of getting the ‘chills,’ or a gut tightening feeling? Can you sense the energy of a room? When you can recognize your body’s primal response to a challenge or a new situation, you can learn to feel when you are making the ‘right decision.’ Being embodied means that you can rediscover your true ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ and move more effortlessly in the world.”
Anyone truly gifted and accomplished at what they do can make it a conduit for seeing a world you didn’t know existed. Ms. Bergins does this in spades. The book has made me, a self-professed cynic on the dance floor, reexamine the nature and beauty of this artistic and performative action. Frankly, it’s something I’d be wise to consider taking up, in downtime between hectic schedules at work.
Garth Thomas