Toni Bergins: Unlocking Personal Transformation Through Dance | Ep25

In this transformative episode, Christian connects with Toni Bergins, the creator of JourneyDance and the Embodied Transformation Method, to explore how movement can lead to profound personal and spiritual healing. Toni shares her inspiring journey from struggling with body image and self-worth to becoming a spiritual entrepreneur who has helped over 150,000 people reconnect with their bodies through movement and music.

Tune in as Toni reveals the power of JourneyDance to release emotional stagnation, embrace authentic expression, and create life-changing shifts. She explains how movement can be a gateway to deeper self-awareness, helping participants unlock their full potential by exploring emotions like joy, grief, and empowerment in a safe, non-judgmental space.

Toni also shares insights from her entrepreneurial path, offering valuable lessons on how to monetize your passion while maintaining integrity and authenticity. From building a thriving community to developing teacher training programs and navigating the shift to online classes, Toni’s journey highlights the importance of adaptability and commitment in turning a spiritual calling into a sustainable business.

Join us as Toni envisions a world where individuals embrace movement as a tool for transformation, healing, and self-expression. Through her work, she empowers others to live more embodied lives, aligned with their true purpose and full of joy.

Toni Bergins is the creator of JourneyDance and the Embodied Transformation Method.

With nearly 30 years of experience, she has guided over 150,000 people through workshops, retreats, and training, helping many heal and reconnect with their bodies through movement. Toni's journey began with personal struggles around body image and self-worth, leading her to a profound spiritual transformation. She integrates music, movement, and self-expression in her healing work, and is also a musician who channels emotional healing through music and Author of the newly released book EMBODY.

Connect with Toni on Instagram: @tonibergins | @journeydanceofficial

Or visit JourneyDance website: https://journeydance.com/

Core Themes

• Movement as healing
• Body awareness and transformation
• Dance as a tool for personal growth
• Emotional healing and energy flow
• Artistic and creative expression
• Entrepreneurial journey
• Integrity and authenticity in business
• Community and connection

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Transcript

Christian
What is up beautiful people. This is Christian from the Successful Spiritualpreneur Podcast. And today I'm super excited because I have a very special guest here. Her name is Toni Bergins and she's a creator of Journey Dance and the Embodied Transformation Method. So with nearly 30 years of experience, she has guided over 150, 000 people through workshops, retreats and training, helping many heal and reconnect with their bodies.

Through movement. Toni's journey began with personal struggles around body, image, and self worth, leading her to a profound spiritual transformation. She integrates music, movement, and self expression in her healing work, and is also a musician who channels emotional healing through music, as well as a new author of the book that's coming soon, which is called Embody.

So Toni, welcome to the show. 

Toni Bergins
Thank you so much. I'm so honored to be here and to be working with you in a different capacity. 

Christian
Yes. So excited to have you here. So tell us how, like, why movement? Why that? 

Toni Bergins
Oh my goodness. Well, that's everything. Movement is life. Movement is energy. Movement is the key to all of it.

And my feeling, if you're, if we're in stagnation, we're just. And if we're in movement, we're in flow. So I've been teaching movement since I discovered my own body really. Um, in my early twenties, I was not one of those kids who danced like their whole way through life and then like was a dancer and had all the skills.

I was disembodied and, and like not in a great place and really just doing like the regular thing that was expected of me, you know, went to college, went to grad school, was supposed to do this career. And I just, Hit the dance floor one day at Kripalu Center, which is a famous premier yoga and health center.

And I ended up crying hysterically and feeling like, what am I doing with my life? I was like, what am I doing with my life? I want to be here. I want to be in the moment. I want to be in my body. I want to cry and laugh and feel my power and my sensuality. And I just. My whole life changed on a dime, like whoop, and I was like, quit everything and started a new path.

It was not easy, but I did it. 

Christian
Wow. 

Toni Bergins
You asked the question, that's what came out. 

Christian
Yeah, no, that's incredible because I feel it's just, as you say, it's the key to everything. You know, movement just brings you out of anything that's not moving, stuck, old, um, sticky. So. It's a very powerful tool. So tell us, like, how has your life changed since then?

How long have you been doing this? How what's happening? 

Toni Bergins
Oh my goodness. Since that like epiphany moment, I'll never forget it. I was like, Oh my God, I don't know what I'm going to do now. Like, I can't go back to that, what I was doing. I was living in New York city, kind of corporate life. It was great. I had all the things looked great.

I had the great job, like a nice, decent apartment at the time, which is probably worth so much money now. But at the time it was like a little tiny little one bedroom that I happened to find. But it was like, I just couldn't stay there. I had to leave. I had to just get out and do something different. So I left New York and I went on a whole different journey.

So my whole life turned into, um, living in sort of a countryside, living in the mountains and going to like. Nature became part of my life in a whole different way than it had been before. And music has always been my life. Like I have been obsessed with music since I was a child. And I give that to my dad.

My dad is a, he's a Mozartian aficionado and opera and all the things. So he just, he just, Pushed music into our brains, you know, all of my whole family. And then we would of course, rebel against him and listen to all other kinds of music, but music was my life. And then when I saw how music and movement could just become a transformational journey.

I started creating on the dance floor. I started teaching and creating. And first I took what was called Kripalu dance kinetics way back in the early nineties. And then I studied every form of dance I could find to like become a dancer. Cause I wasn't a dancer. I didn't have the training. I just love to move.

And luckily I was pretty physically able to move. Um, and I started realizing that I was obsessed with spiritual growth and always have been on some spiritual path or other and really obsessed with, uh, psychodrama, which I just love, and all things, you know, spiritual. I read every book on every religion.

I just wanted to know everything about everything to understand why am I here? What is my purpose? What is the purpose of all of this? This whole crazy ride that we're on, that I love. I shouldn't say crazy. Wild, intense ride. Um, and then I started weaving the things together. Because what I noticed was when I was in an altered state of movement, whether it's like fast movement or, you know, wild, just abandoned, or, you know, like really slow, something would happen in the mind and my mind would shut off all of its blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

We have a lot of active mind and I would just go into a different space where I could say, Oh, what? Do I need to know? What do I need to see? What am I feeling right now? What needs to be expressed? What is possible? What do I need to let go of? And all the stuff started pouring in like I became a channel for this whole questioning.

So when you take a journey dance with me or you do this process with any of the teachers who study with me, it's a lot of inquiry. Where am I now? What's happening? What needs to be looked at? What, what, what's ready to be revealed? What more parts of me could I actually reveal to the world? What needs to be embraced?

What needs to be forgiven? What needs to be reclaimed? It's, it's a lot. It's like, I'm weaving psychology, spirituality, and movement and music into one, I hope that helped. I don't know. My life's changed in so many ways. I don't know if I answered the question. 

Christian
I know. No, it's beautiful. We have a lot of people here, uh, on the show that are just such multi dimensional masters.

You know, because once you go on this like spiritual journey, I feel like there's, There's like these, all these layers that become unlocked and you realize yourself in so many different ways in different capacities. And, you know, some, some people might even start different, you know, hobbies, different instruments, just manifest in so many different ways.

So I think you're such an incredible example of that. And so for you, what has been. Like what has been the most rewarding part of your work? 

Toni Bergins
Um, I just I knew you somehow I knew you were gonna ask that I was gonna say the answer already It's the people and it's the community and it's the energy. I mean You know You could be addicted to a lot of things in life, right?

And I think why not be addicted to something like dancing with a hundred people? Like that is so fun, so powerful, so transformative. I don't know how else to describe it, but I, I think my favorite thing is just dancing with, Large groups of people. I always say the more, the merrier, you know, when there's like eight people, 10 people, it's a lot more work as a facilitator.

When there's a hundred, 400, you're just like, everyone's just with you. Like being a DJ, I'm a DJ, but I'm also guiding. So it's not quite being a DJ. It's like being a DJ with a psychological, you know, in in depth program. We're going to unwind, right. We're going to go on a journey into ourselves, into the community.

And like, I think the other thing that's most, um, fulfilling for me is the potential. I feel like there's a potential that happens when people gather and they dance together and they, in this particular way and creation is possible. Like I feel, I just wrote an email today about how I'm, how we could come together and effectively shift the collective with intention.

If we all put our intention into one thing, into the dream of bringing our full energy forward, or the dream into moving into peace, the dream into, you know, moving into manifestation, whatever you're looking for in your life, I feel that is so potential. Like, that's what I love about the dance. Feels like, it feels like I'm gardening and I'm planting seeds and something's going to happen and it's going to ripple out into the world.

Every time I dance, I, I feel the ripple effect. That's kind of why I keep coming back. 

Christian
And so what's like, what's super fascinating for me is like, you were able to take a subject like dance and monetize it. How do you, how do you survive? Like, how do you make money? You know what I mean? Like, tell us about that.

How were you able to make a business out of your passion? 

Toni Bergins
That is the journey that I always tell people, like being an entrepreneur is not for everyone. It is, it is not the easy journey. It is not the easy path. You don't just get your paycheck every week and, you know, go and pay your dues and do your thing.

You have to actually create constantly. And I feel like the key to our success journey dance is probably like, there's five of us that helped me run the company, including you at times. And, um, it's, it's being able to pivot and see. What the need is and what's possible and what people want. So what we did, so how it started really was the original like monetization will say was teacher training.

Somebody came to me in the early 2000s and said, what are you doing? I want to do that. That's different. And I was like, I don't know, what am I doing? And she's like, I will sit with you and I will write a teacher training manual. She's like, I will, you will dictate it to me and I will write it. I was like, all right, let's do this.

So as soon as someone says they want to help you, you're like, yeah, especially if you're an artist. Yes, help me. So she, this woman, I'll never forget her, so sweet. She would come to my house like every week for months and just ask me questions. What happens first? What happens second? What happens? Why do you do that?

Why is it in this order? How come you change that? And like all these things. And then slowly, she's like, what music do you play? And I'm like, oh, this, that. And then we developed the teacher training manual. And it was like an organic thing. I had no plans for this. That's the one thing that was about me that, um, I think I probably could have monetized better had I had a big plan, but I actually have been walking the steps kind of like I am a Capricorn and we just like, you know, we climb the mountain.

However, we're going to get to the top. This is how we are. Right? We're steadfast and we're persistent, but we don't always follow the path, right? We just go wherever. So, That was the beginning of monetization. I didn't know that was going to happen. I didn't know I was going to be doing these teacher trainings.

And then that just became the business. And then, you know, we had the whole pandemic happen and going on zoom. So our whole lives, right. Remember, I don't know, you're not as old as me, but when I was a kid, we used to say like, can you imagine someday there's going to be video calling? Like, there's gonna be video calling, we were like, it's gonna be amazing, now we're doing it, which is amazing, in my lifetime, so happy.

So Zoom happened, and then everything shifted, and then I started teaching online, and that was another whole big stream of income that I was not expecting when people were coming to the class online. A lot of people were coming, a lot of people, so then I started teaching more online, and more online, and then I was like, oh, I like it, I don't love it, I like being with people, but I can do it, it's successful.

So it's this like, little balance, where you pivot. And say, okay, this is the next path. Okay, this is the next path. So right now, I wrote a book, which is right here. I got my copies. It's called embody, feel, heal, and transform your life through movement. And I'm hoping that this will be another launching pad for the monetization because more people who would never have heard of me or heard of this idea, I mean, embodiment is a very popular word right now.

It's one of the buzzwords. That's why I thought I'm going to go with it because this is what I believe in that we embody all our parts. We embody everything that we want to become, everything that we've been and we embrace it, we express it, we process it, we move through it. So. This is another way I have a portal that people who come in, they'll like, they'll go to the little bar code.

Okay. Open right to the page. They'll click it. They'll go in, they'll go to a portal where they can join me for a masterclass. We can do all kinds of things together. So there's a lot of options for monetization that I think. You know, make it, I made it, I'm the kind of person who I made a DVD. I swear, I'm not kidding you.

Like in 2018, when like Blockbuster fully closed, like it was like the end of the DVD era when I finally like made the DVD. So, you know, sometimes as an entrepreneur, you're like chasing it. Sometimes you're ahead of it. It just depends, you know? So that's kind of how I describe this journey. The entrepreneurial journey is not for everyone.

It is not easy. Some people come in and they're like, I can't do what you do. There's no way I could never live like that. I couldn't have to be creating my own. You know, you're an entrepreneur. You have to create your own industry in a sense. It's almost like I actually was part of, of the creating of the industry.

There was a whole conversation with a bunch of really amazing dance teachers way back with this guy who was incredibly brilliant. And he created a whole magazine called conscious dancer. And we were, we were on the phone, you know, like week after week, deciding like, how will this play out? What's it going to be called?

And like, you know, I, I remember he's a genius and he helped create an industry that didn't even exist before. Like remember when yoga, no one knew what that was. Now there's conscious dance and everyone knows what that is. Now people know what ecstatic dance is and all these different dance forms are.

They know because people have really spent their lives dedicated to spreading the work. So that's the entrepreneurial journey. And monetization is, is sometimes super up, but sometimes down and sometimes up and down, you know, it's kind of how it goes. 

Christian
Yeah. 

Toni Bergins
Wow. Helpful and honest answer. 

Christian
Yeah, no, absolutely.

I think, you know, that I think is just. I mean, that answer kind of encapsulates what an entrepreneur really is about. It's like you create your own niche in a way, right. Especially when you're so unique and expressive and spiritual as you are, right. You just, you don't want to be like, uh, I don't know, putting people's roofs or landscape.

It's not, that's not really an entrepreneur for you. Right. And I think that's also why this podcast, like successful spiritual printer, like. There's this connection of like your passion, your spirit, your intangible with this tangible value. So like with that being said, like what is for you as spiritual entrepreneur, like what would you define that as?

Toni Bergins
I mean, for me, like integrity is such a key word to the whole thing because as a business person, I always want to deliver the content. Like that's never been my issue. Delivering the content is what, that's my jam. I'm so good at having, giving people a transformational experience. The selling, the marketing, all that stuff is the real rub for artists and entrepreneurs like us.

It's just like, how do I sell my stuff? Everybody needs, but no one knows they need it. It's like, what was that? The need, you know, the thing everyone needs. Anyway, that's from the Lorax. But the whole point is, it's like, I think that's the hardest part. So to me, to be a really spiritual entrepreneur is to actually never, Be like selling in an icky way, but be offering and inviting and hopefully spreading so much love that you become a magnet.

Like that's, that's my goal. I'm just like, I am a magnet of love. Like I'm just, I know the world is really going through intensity right now, but I'm showing up every week with my resilient body and I'm saying, listen, let's do this. Cause resilience isn't my, isn't my, my equation, resilience minus joy equals suffering.

Resilience plus joy equals empowerment, right? So if I, if I can get back to joy, even if it's for 10 minutes on the dance floor, I can go back to be resilient again. But if I'm not in joy, then I'm just like, and it could happen as a, even in this business, you know, whatever business you're in, like you have to have joy in there.

So that's my thing. I think it's really about integrity, offering something that's really useful. One of the things that I'll share is one of my challenges is. I've always been coming up with what's the right tagline? Like how, how do people, you know, and I watch people who are like so successful and they're like using these taglines.

I'm like, Oh God, I would never use that. Just so not me. You know, so it's like finding the me that is me. And then the you that is you, that like somehow you're delivering the message of who you are. I think that's the hardest part is like, it's that, but it's also my favorite part, you know, finding what is it that I'm sharing?

What is it I'm delivering? So I would say like, you know, embody your joy, embody your, your sensuality, embody your power. What, what would I say tomorrow? You know, I don't know. It's like every day is kind of a different, you know, message. 

Christian
It is, it is an evolution too. You know, that has to be said, especially as an entrepreneur, like the agency that I ran five years ago is not the same way I run the agency today.

Cause I have changed, the market has changed, the customers have changed, you know, like everything has changed. People have gotten smarter is AI now things have gotten easier. Um, you know, I have changed certain things I want to versus not want to do inside of my own business currently, you know, it's like, so yeah, absolutely.

I think that evolution is a key part. And I think I love, I really love that you said that integrity. Um, because yeah, like if you, I think it's like, it's like the dark side versus the light side as an entrepreneur, like you could sell the heck out of things. Maybe never deliver as good, right? Or you just don't sell it as much, but you really just like love your own price.

More like an internal thing, you know? So you just, you love it, you know, you're good at it, but you're just not good at marketing it, 

you know what I 

mean? 

Toni Bergins
Hello, you're speaking my language. That's, that's me. I mean, I'm getting much better at marketing just because, you know, we have social media and there's all these.

Easy avenues to market, but it's still that love of it. And, you know, one thing I'll say to people so that they don't feel depressed. And I'm just going to be honest right here and say, some people who have massive Instagram followings don't have the actual. Thing that you think they had, because some people are just really good at the marketing and they're not yet, or they haven't yet been discovered by the people who would actually pay, right?

Cause like being really popular on social media doesn't mean you're getting paying clients. It just means that you have a lot of followers and some people love free content and all they're going to ever do is free content. That's all they're ever going to do. Other people are like, I don't want to dance with AI.

I want to dance with her, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, luckily for me, what I do can never be replaced by AI. I'm just. I'm going to be dancing with you and moving unless there's like an actual like AI robot that really can move. I don't even want to say those words out loud. Um, I'm kidding, but you know, yeah, we'll use AI to come up to generate some great, you know, content or ideas for content or like titles of things or whatever, but it can't replace the experience of a human being like what you've been through.

So I think the other thing about that you said, the other thing that's really important to me. And the spiritual business is that I can really hold space if I've really gone deep, right? Like, if I haven't gone deep into my well of grief, anger, healing, all the things, then who am I to hold space for people while they're going through that, right?

I really have to walk my talk. So integrity for me also means walk my talk. Be present with the people that are in your space, you know? That's why I'm like, marketing is like, so, like, I, I know I need to, I need to prioritize it much more than I do but it's definitely not like, number one on my priority list is, what playlist am I gonna do tomorrow, you know, it's not like, how am I gonna sell the class, so I'm, I'm working on that more and more because now that I wrote the book, I have even more responsibility to, oh, Get the book out there.

And my goal, my true goal is that the book will bring the form into the consciousness of more people so that all the teachers I've trained will have full classes and we'll have, they'll be able to also thrive because everyone's thriving is my thriving. You know, it's like everyone I've ever taught thrives, then I'm good.

I've done my work here. I don't have to keep pushing. I can let other people teach and. Spread and heal. Cause that's the whole point of it all is for healing. It's not for me, you know, and of course I, everyone needs to make money and pay for their, pay their rent or whatever they have to do. So it's a complex dance.

I'm always in that dance. Money, love, passion, creativity, money, love, passion, creativity. 

Christian
It's true. Very true. It's like a, it's, they, you know, inspire each other. It's like an infinite loop, you know? 

Toni Bergins
And changing your relationship with money. As even as I did that, I was like, Oh, I like that money. Love creativity.

Like, why can't they all dance together? People have such negative connotation of money that when money comes into the picture, it's like, ah, you know, it's like stuff comes up all of our past, all of our childhood, you know, this is what got yelled at in our family. Money is bad or money is all that matters.

You know, all the different messages that we got. So it's like finding that balance so that you can actually. monetize in a, in a healthy, good way where everyone is, you know, you know, you know what I mean? We come from a similar spiritual path, so we're, we're gonna, we want to do it for the highest good of all and for our own, you know, success.

Christian
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so if there's somebody out there, one of the listeners that really wants to like, just get to know Journey Dance and the method behind it, like what would you say is the great way to start? 

Toni Bergins
Oh, well, the first thing to do is come dance with me on Tuesday at 12 o'clock. We have a Tuesday 12 it's just because it's a long story, but Tuesday, 12 o'clock, we've been doing it since then.

COVID. And we stopped, we didn't stop cause we had so many wonderful people coming. Um, Tuesdays, 12 o'clock Eastern standard time. There's a class always taught by me or one of my team. And the other way is to buy the book, which is now literally it's going to come on the shelves. It's going to be at Target and all those places.

I can't believe it. And Barnes and Noble and everywhere. I know I'm so excited. Um, it's called embody and this explains journey dance. And this is a little funny thing that I do on all my visual podcasts. I said to them, can we do a flip book? Isn't that hilarious? She took it, she made a video, so you can be inspired.

And this thing leads you into a portal that's full of videos, playlists, so many playlists, like 17 playlists of all the qualities of journey dance, and then videos, and to dance with me, and then I'm going to do a master class, and people can come, actually we can do the work together and be like really digging into the questions.

Why do I have low self esteem? Why do I have body hatred? Why am I having this addiction? Why, you know like and unpack it as a group and dance and move and transform some of that whatever's possible And my conditioning i'm really about on my whole goal is to help people unlock their conditioning and to find their own Their own thought their own creativity their own expression because you come with so much So many gifts and they just get like, you know You get told what to do by everyone as you grow up and then you're like, who am I?

So that's the big question and it could last forever. Some people are still looking Oh, yeah. Yeah

I am too. It's fun. Um, but I love the journey. So it's called journeydance. com. My website is journeydance. com and you can also go to tonibergins. com to get into the book portal and grab a copy of the book, which would be so wonderful. It comes out again. I did the audio book as well, which was such, that was such a fun journey.

Reading out loud. Oh my god, it's a lot of hours and a lot of, a lot of energy to read out loud. You should appreciate all audiobook readers from this point on because it takes energy. You have to be, you can't be like slouching in your chair when you're reading. You just have to be on when you read a book out loud.

It's, it's really, it's good work. It's deep. 

Christian
I love it. That's amazing. Okay. So tell us like you, you, you just mentioned your website and I think a website, because you know, at Love Pixel Agency here, it's always, a website is always a special thing, cause it's kind of like. It's like putting a down, a stake in the ground, be like, this is who I am, right?

So tell us about the first version of your website and, and how, how that came about. Cause they're all like, we all start out somehow. And I think it's great. And people always think that we need these like million dollar websites to start out with. And it's usually not the case. 

Toni Bergins
Love this question. I'm so excited.

Cause 1997, my first website. It was one page. You know those one pagers from 1997? You were probably just a child. Anyway, so 1997, I had a one page website, and I drew all the pictures myself of all the dances. So on the sides, it was all little dance figures. Like, my scribble, it was hysterically funny. It's like, back, bend, and it was like all these poses, and like leaping, and they were, I have a poster, I think, that, That still, like, has those drawings on it somewhere in some file that says, like, Toni's old memorabilia.

But anyway, it was orange and blue. And my friend made the logo, and it was this really thick, funky, like, really old font, doesn't even exist. And then it became papyrus, which then everybody used, and papyrus had to go. So that was the first website, 1997. And then I had, like, one other one, which I can't remember, then the one before you.

And then I came into Love Pixel Agency, and now my website is magnificent looking. 

Christian
I love it. so much. 

Toni Bergins
It truly is, but it has evolved. I mean, that is a funny process. The last one wasn't terrible. 

Christian
Yeah, tell us, tell us about the last one. Tell us about the one in between the first one and the one now.

Because all these websites, if you think about it, there are big milestones in people's and entrepreneurs lives. 

Toni Bergins
I know, I wish I had taken a screenshot. I don't think you could take screenshots back then. I think we were using actual cameras. Anyway, so, I'm serious. The iPhone came out in, I mean, you know, later, everybody, just so you know.

Like, you're lucky you have an iPhone. You can edit your stuff so easy now. We had to work so hard. So the first website was that one pager. I remember the guy, we would get together. Oh, I know, the second website. Okay, the second website was this really cool guy who created a pager. Like a plug and play thing.

So you'd say, can you make, you'd text him, can you make me a window to drop in a picture and have an event? And he'd be like, I will do it in two days. And then two days later, he'd send you a link and you'd click it. And then you'd be able to drop a picture and a description. And then it would look like, you know, like a listing.

It looked like an old, like, I wish I could describe it to you, but like the words and the photo, and this is how much it costs. And you have to go sign up and get to like, call a number. We didn't have like. All the stuff, yeah, there was not like Eventbrite or PayPal or you know or Stripe or any of this stuff.

It's just all so complicated Then this then the next website was um, I think that was live edit I did live edit and my pictures were beautiful and I had spent so much money on the graphics Oh my god people just making it look great You know, I don't know. I don't know what people should spend money on these days.

I don't know what's the most important thing. Functionality, probably more important than visuals, but now you have to have both because You know, Instagram is so beautiful, and you can make things so easily in Canva and do all the things. But we didn't have Canva back then, so we were paying the designer to make the images, and oh my goodness.

Y'all lucky now, you just go to Canva and go to someone like Christian, he'll just like whip it together for you so beautifully. So then, you know, that website, we had like ten, not ten years, maybe ten years with the last one. Which was move into a new story with the red. I went to this photo shoot and running around in Jamaica, actually.

Um, with, uh, with a woman and, and this guy and they helped me and we ran, I had this 15 foot scarf and I ran across the field with it and we took all the pictures. It's like that kind of stuff, you know? Um, but this website I had, this was my, I think this is the most beautiful website we've ever had by far.

And the way the process that you had was so efficient and, And, um, beautiful. And I did have an incredible photo shoot that was an accident, uh, that happened. One was an accident, one was on purpose, but I had this amazing photographer who was at an event that I was teaching and she said, I'm going to take all these pictures for you because I'm taking them for them.

So I'm taking them for you too. And she is an epic photographer. So we had beautiful photos to work with. And then with you and the style and the new, you know, the blending and the energy and those videos that we made that DJ, a DJ made me those videos that do that thing. Cause my work is elemental. So I wanted the elements to come through.

We got everything to come through, I think really well. 

Christian
Yeah. And so what does this website symbolize for you? Like the new one? 

Toni Bergins
Mm. 

Christian
Like what? Like now that you have it and like what do you feel you calling into your life? 

Toni Bergins
Hmm. It's like I'm 55 ready to drive. I have arrived. Hmm. You like that ? Yeah. 

Christian
I like it.

Toni Bergins
Well, you're not 55 yet, but when you turn 55, something happens. I don't know what it is, but. I feel like I have arrived. Like I'm marinated. I'm solidly in the work, been there. I've, I've seen so many things. I can hold that space. It's special. It's who I am now. It's not like I'm still, of course, I'm still evolving and growing because we're always evolving and growing, but I feel in the work, I'm in a new place and writing the book was kind of like, I'm here.

I'm, I'm here, you know, and now with the website, we all knew the book was going to come out. Like when we talked about the website, it was like, all right, it's going to just be a new solid, but it's so much movement and it's so beautiful. It really feels like, uh, the next evolution. Yeah. And of course, we'll work, we'll, you know, if we need to change it, we'll change it again.

But it's right now, it's, that's what I'll say, 55 Redditor Drive, I have arrived. That's my new website. 

Christian
I love it. So we're coming towards the end of the episode, we have about like five to seven minutes left. And I wanted to ask you a couple more, kind of like. Uh, philosophical questions if you're so, um, if you like, what would you say?

What are the three words you want people to know you for after you leave this physical plane?

Toni Bergins
Yeah. Inspiration. I thrive on inspiration. That's my thing.

Energy shifter. Energy shifter. Like, uh, even though I'm dance, I do dance, it's really about the energy. It has nothing to do with your physical body. Even though your physical body will be doing the dance, it's your energy that we're working with. So it's inspiration, energy. Hmm. Wow. Well, with three words, I want to be, when I leave this planet plane, I think it would have to be love.

I know I'm a little bit of a sap, but I just, I was going to say like, you know, upliftment, but it's love. It's just love that just radiates from every single person. If we could get past our own blocks and get in between the lines and stop division, it would just be love. It would just be that we would just all just, we would just let it out.

Cause I think everybody. I think, I think all wound and heal and pain and all of it comes from not letting the love out, right? They say grief is love with no place to go. So if we're grieving, it's because we have so much love and we won't let it out. It's like this, I don't know how else to describe it, but it's movement.

Okay. Let's, let's end with, I get four words. It's movement. Movement has to be the fourth. 

Christian
I love it. Awesome. That's great. So, uh, who or what inspires you the most in your spiritual or entrepreneur journey right now? 

Toni Bergins
Ooh, that's such a good one.

You know, honestly, it's not, it's the opposite of what you would think. It's not someone who's above or someone who's below it's everyone who I work with, like all everywhere I go, you know, I go to a studio, I meet the studio owner, we're friends, we have this connection. We like, what are you doing? How are, how are you doing it?

It's, it's the community. It's, it's the journey dance teacher to say, Toni, we need this. We need that. Oh, we love that you're doing that. Can we ride that one? Let's ride this wave together. It's like that interaction. It's like meeting you. It's like everyone I meet is my, is my mentor. And is my, is my, I don't have, I don't have a guru.

I don't have a guru to be honest. So I watched the big wigs and I know who the gurus are. And I, I mean, the people who are like the best marketers in the world and I've gone to some of their workshops and things, I've done a lot of that studying, but it never, I never land with it always comes from the, from the people I'm with.

My partner, my, my friends, my journey dance team. I have the most amazing team of human beings that are just so wonderful. And they constantly push me, inspire me. And sometimes we have friction and we have to work through stuff and they're just amazing. They're, they're geniuses and I love them and they help me too.

Isn't that, is that sound like, you know what I mean? It's like, it's not a thing above or below. It's, it's, it's this year. 

Christian
Yeah. It's, uh, you know, you're in one wavelength, one level. 

Toni Bergins
And I'm listening to grow. That's the thing. I want to always listen to what is going to push me to grow. 

Christian
Yeah. And so with that inspiration, what's your vision for the new earth?

Toni Bergins
Oh, wow. Oh, you want to hear the honest truth? Pretty much everybody needs to do some kind of a psychedelic experience with a journey with a facilitator, or they need to get I need to open up some material. That's my first mission. Um, they can do it through dance. They can do it through movement. They can do it through breath work.

They can do it through some kind of, uh, altered state experience. We have to get out of the normal day to day, this is how I think. This is how I am. That has to be shifted. We have to get to a new level. And the way you do that is through altered state experiences, through some kind of a shift. And I really think that that's the number one thing.

Because when everybody does their work, and they see, okay, this is, this past I'm carrying with me, has to be released, or has to be transmuted, or has to be shifted, otherwise the world's going to stay in the same cycles, Same paradigm, you know, war and power and violence and land and ownership and all the things that we're working on right now, it's, it's just really intense.

It's like we have to all do something to shift that and to open up and to say, okay, what is possible now? Then we can start thinking, what is possible now? So what is my vision of the new earth? You know, I'm, I'm not living it right now. And I know that I'm, I actually am, I am an empty nester. So right now I'm living alone, right?

It's kind of weird. I want to be in community and I'm living alone. It's very strange. So my communities are created through my work. So I go dance with tons of people. I go dance with tons of people. I go dance on the people. So I have communities all over globally, but what about locally? And I think right now we're seeing it everywhere that we need our local communities.

We need actually to, you know, do the reconnection in that way. But without the barriers of. Judgment that we are so in we're so conditioned right now into fear and judgment. Those are the two biggest forces I think right now that are dividing and conquering and doing all the things, right? Fear and judgment.

So if we could unpack that, we could shift. I did say psychedelics. Um, but I also think it can be done in many ways through spiritual practice, meditation, just we've all got to get on that journey. And I do, I do think that's kind of my answer for the question. I hope that was, uh, at least made some sense.

Christian
Oh, that's, that's beautiful. And with, with that being said, what would you say, like, what are your future goals as, as a spiritual entrepreneur, as a spiritual brand, and what are you looking, what are you looking to call in for you, for yourself and for journey dance and for that vision? 

Toni Bergins
Oh, I want to call like more people to the dance floor.

Just more and more and more people saying, Hey, this is where it's at. It's not, it's not outside of me. It's not in my disassociative, uh, state where I'm going to find the answers. It's it's in here. It's in my heart. It's in my body. It's like, let's get back into the body because we've just, we've really disassociated so we can handle life and we've numbed out and that's scary.

Cause numb people do things that. Few people who could feel would never do so it's like it's part of that emotional empathic compassionate journey that I want people to go on that's why the journey dance is not it's not like woohoo let's party it's got that but it's also got the depth what do you need to what evocative emotion do you need to feel right now do you need to feel your anger do you feel your sadness what can we move today so that you centeredness and be there Be present with everyone in your life.

Like that's really what I'm looking for. So I get, I think I'm really clear on my mission is just to continue and just expand and hope that more and more people will come to the dance floor. More people will come to the music. Music is such a gift. Music is, is I could talk about music all day. If you want to do a whole podcast with me on music.

We could do that. I could listen to music all day, literally every day, all day for a year and never get bored because it's like, everyone has something to say. The musicians, the artists, the instruments is just, it's an incredible journey and to mix that into your life is another healing bomb. Everybody needs music and dance and expression.

Christian
Wow. Yeah, that's my truth. That's beautiful. And you know, one thing that I heard once was that music is the backdoor to the heart. 

Toni Bergins
Ooh, I like that. 

Christian
Yeah. So we're coming to the last question of the podcast. Um, what are the last words you want to leave our audience with? And then where can people find you?

Toni Bergins
Oh wow, okay. So the last words I'd want to leave the audience with would be, wherever you are right now, whatever's going on with you in your life, take a breath and let yourself feel it and maybe put on a piece of music and maybe dance it, maybe express it through movement and trust, trust that some deep part of you knows how to heal.

That would be my last words, I think. Because everyone knows how to heal. Our bodies are made to heal. We have a cut, it gets healed. So we have to learn how to do that on the emotional and the mental, spiritual level as well. And if anyone is going through heartbreak, just know that there's a lot of people going through it too and that we're going to be okay.

We can heal our hearts. We can heal them one day at a time. And that it's okay. That's probably my greatest message. And that music would be a great soothing balm and dancing. Ah, I guess that's what I want to say to people. Cause I feel like there's so much, there's just so much, as I said, fear and pain and sadness and judgment and grief, and there's also a lot of joy.

So we're all riding this wave together. Um, you can find me at journeydance. com, tonibergins. com. And you can follow me on social media, which would be so great on Tik TOK at Toni Bergins, Instagram at Toni Bergins and journeydanceofficial. Those are my little tags and Facebook, of course, but I think I don't have any more space in Facebook or something.

I don't understand. Can't follow me anymore on Facebook. Cause I have too many followers. No, I don't 

Christian
love it. Great. Well, thanks so much for being part of the show and for all your wisdom that you left here, all your heart and all your energy. So 

Toni Bergins
so much for having me. Thank you for working with me and making my beautiful website.

Go check out journeydance. com. It's so beautiful. Made by love pixel Christian himself and his amazing team. 

Christian
Thank you so much. Yes. We had a great time making that website. It was beautiful. We all uplift each other. Capsulate the movement and the elements and yeah, it was an honor. Thank you. Bye guys. 

Toni Bergins
Bye.