Emotional Freedom Technique in Los Angeles

I have always wanted to explore LA but I never expected that on my first visit I would learn more about emotional freedom than the actual city.
Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a beautiful 33°C in the City of Angels. An interesting series of events unfolded which lead me to a place called Full Circle, in Venice Beach. Brace yourself for the warm degrees of separation. You may already follow @tridoshaYogaYYC on instagram and in a recent post a follower commented on one of the photos... They had recently posted a picture of Full Circle. This intrigued me because the building looked to be a church transformed into a yogi loving, graffiti happy, cultural centre. Whenever, I am in a new city I try to find a studio to practice yoga. However, Full Circle had something really cool to offer which was that it is a Alternative & Holistic Healing Centre. They also happened to be offering a workshop that involved the meridians and nadi system which ties quite harmoniously with Tantra Yoga.

Santa Monica, Ball Nogue Installation. Photographer: Ayla Clemis

The healing workshop is called Dream Awake, EFT(Emotional Freedom Technique). It was lead by the warm and welcoming Jennifer Partridge who shared the practice of EFT. The workshops starts out by the lovely greeters handing you a piece of paper, a bunch of tissues(hint, hint), and a pen. You begin by writing the intention of your meditation and placing it in the middle of the circle. Once everyone had arrived we made the circle closely knit so that we could all really connect and experience the practice of EFT. The closeness was beautiful as it allowed us to experience ourselves as individuals but also surrounded by a network of loving supporters.
Emotional Freedom Technique is a new approach to healing. It blends new age methods with ancient Chinese medicine. What makes EFT so unique from most new age practices is that it allows you to really feel every emotion. It doesn't focus on everything being blissful, rainbows and sunshine. It allows you to literally tap into every emotion. 
The technique is that you tap along the meridians of the body which can also be referred to as the rivers, life force, or nadis in yogic terms. By tapping into these meridians you allow yourself to loosen blockages in the body that might be holding you back in the subconscious mind. 

Meridians. Nadi System.

The subconscious mind, which is essential in Tantra Yoga, has been conditioned from the time that you are born. As you start to experience the world things like your parents, family, friends, media, and teachers influence and cultivate you to think, act and express in certain way. These things could root back so far ancestrally that subconsciously we are carriers of the insecurities of our forefathers. These influences that have pushed you to become this way your whole life, although that is not who you truly are.
You might notice that in life you are trying to manifest or push towards something but that you are never able to quite experience or accomplish this. This can stem from a blockage within the meridians. The subconscious mind is telling you, without your conscious knowledge, that what you are pushing for is not safe, or there is underlying fear. These experiences generally stem from a trauma in your life and floods into our relationships, sexuality, creativity, self expression, personality, physical and mental health. 
Thankfully, you can dissolve this blockage. You can tap into your inner most deepest emotions and this blockage can be released. The meridians can eventually be repaired, breaking down the dam that stops the internal rivers from flowing.

Full Circle, Venice Beach

I will share what I can from my experience to give you some insight to the technique. Firstly, in order to receive and experience any kind of healing you have to be open to trying it. I, myself, was not really sure what would happen but I had my heart open.
So after writing my intention and casting it to the center of the circle I took a space and got comfortable next to my neighbors. Jennifer began by teaching us about EFT then got us to quickly journal a few things about our intention. This involved questions like:
What are we working on? Can you give it a color? texture? intensity? emotions? What self talk arises? Where is has this been cultured from? How long has this been present? Who's responsibility is it?
She showed us where on the meridians to tap into our body. We worked with a bit of a script throughout the tapping part of the session. After she spoke, I would repeat eventually tailoring her words to my own experience. I would flow through every emotion that the tapping evoked.
The EFT resulted in a lot of memories from childhood coming up, in my case. Eventually leading me to a past experience that shockingly connected to my current state. Once I was able to understand why this came up, I was able to go through the process of accepting all of the emotions and feeling that wrapped it. Eventually this blockage which had been holding me back was able to be release. Many tears later the session came to a close and we all tapped out. We finished the session by practicing an exercise that formed a network of love, support, and understanding.
I don't want to share too many details as this is something you really have to try for your self...

We finished the evening off by having an open invitation to Cafe Gratitude, a vegan restaurant found throughout LA. The EFT was such a wholesome experience and finishing with a lovely dinner surrounded by open-hearted, like-minded, and beautiful people was the perfect way to end my first Los Angeles.

Photographer: Ayla Y Clemis