What is this energy, and how can we access it?

Think of an electric light. When you flip a wall switch, a light goes on somewhere in the house. How did the energy get to the light bulb when you flipped the light switch? As we are all aware, there are wires running through the wall, but you can't see them. We have similar energy circuits in our body. We call them meridians. They run throughout our body, but we can't see them. We can access them using our own energy switches by touching, massaging, or holding certain reflex points on the surface of our body.

We have all experienced pain in one way or another. Even though we don't like pain, pain can be our friend. Like the wall switch and the light bulb, when something is not working properly, our body sends us pain messages to alert us to that fact. If the light bulb doesn't go on when we flip the switch, or if it keeps flickering on and off, we can say there is something wrong with the electric energy source for the light bulb. Similarly if our body is sending a pain message, we know that there is something that needs attention to restore proper working order.

All too often we tend to ignore the pain or to cover it up with pain killing drugs. We teach simple techniques that will often reduce or eliminate pain by balancing the subtle energies that control the body and mind.

Pain is always caused by some sort of stress. We can usually classify stress into one of four categories: mental-emotional, physical-structural, chemical, and energy.

• Mental-emotional stress can be experienced in the home, the workplace, the playground, etc. and can result from both disturbing events and exciting, challenging events.
• Physical-structural stress includes muscle balance and postural problems and often results from excessive exertion. Skeletal problems are usually derivative from muscle problems.
• Chemical stress may result from what we eat, drink, or smoke, from lack of essential nutrients, and from environmental pollution.
• Energy stress may come from fluorescent lighting, electrical power lines and transformers, radio and radar transmission stations, etc.

Any of these stressors can upset the balance of the body energy systems that control and maintain our body's well-being.

These stresses can often be neutralized by balancing the energy flows in our bodies. Just as the electrical energy supply for a light bulb can be controlled by a remotely located wall switch, the energy flows in our body can be controlled by touching or massaging various points on our body. The scientific names for these points are:

• Neurolymphatic reflexes,
• Neurovascular reflex points, and
• Acupuncture points.

These points act much like circuit breakers. Rubbing or touching them "resets" the circuits and gets the energy flowing properly again.

The new Energy Balancing Exercises described in our books and classesclasses are derived from the basic scientific concepts of energy balancing as taught by Touch for Health, and make use of these various types of vital energy control points. These exercises are based on 16 years of working with many people, including ourselves.

For the first 7 years, we have travelled around the country in our motorhome. We started giving lectures on How to Stay Healthy in Retirement at the RV resorts we stayed in during the wintertime. We used muscle testing as a biofeedback technique to show how vital energy flow was affected by various activities such as reading, walking, moving various muscles, etc. When the vital energy flow was adversely affected, we would show a simple balancing exercise to correct that situation. We had hoped that we could interest some of these people in taking classes, but most people preferred to have private sessions to work on their particular problems rather than take a class.

Since we were on the move, we have always emphasized teaching our clients what they can do for themselves after we left as part of these sessions. The new exercises described in our books have gradually evolved as part of our continuing effort to make these energy balancing exercises simpler to do and more effective. The many letters we receive from people that we have worked with provide a continuing testimony to the effectiveness of these exercises.

BACKGROUND:  Our bodies run on energy. The well-being of our bodies depends on a proper balance of energy to its various functions. When energy flows freely and evenly to all parts of our body, we experience vitality, aliveness, and well-being. When blocks in the energy flow occur due to various sources of stress, imbalances develop where some areas have too much energy and others do not have enough. Many problems with body structural and muscular pains, including limited range of motion, and also some functional problems, are associated with energy imbalances. Problems with coordination, reading, writing, memory blocks, dyslexia, etc., reflect a problem with the brain energy balance. Correcting these energy imbalances can often provide considerable relief.

The body energy flows are controlled by the meridian system, discovered thousands of years ago by Chinese acupuncturists, who maintained the well-being of their patients. They were able to map out an extensive system of meridians and acupuncture points that extended over the surface of the entire body. Acupuncture points are located along the meridians and represent the locations where the meridian energy flows are modulated and controlled. The successful use of acupuncture for a very long period of time in the Orient and more recently in this country attests empirically to the function and location of the meridians.

Modern scientists have observed meridians and acupuncture points using radioactive tracers, electrical measuring devices, and careful histological examination under the microscope and have found them to be located exactly as described by the traditional acupuncturist. Further histological examination has shown that meridians are minute ductules that transport fluids containing DNA, RNA, amino acids, hormones, and many other substances at generally higher levels than found in the bloodstream. (See pages 122 -124 in Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber, M.D.)

Every muscle and organ in the body is associated with a meridian. If there is an energy imbalance within a muscle or organ, there will be a corresponding energy imbalance in the associated meridian. And conversely, if there is an energy imbalance in a particular meridian, there will be a corresponding energy imbalance in one or more of the muscles and organs associated with that meridian.

The meridians are intricately interconnected so that an energy imbalance in one meridian can affect the energy balance of the entire meridian system and thus the energy balance for the entire body. This is why we look at the body as a whole when we are balancing body energies, rather than looking solely at the particular muscle or organ that appears to be the problem.

Many techniques for balancing body energy have been discovered and used with success. Often these techniques make use of reflexes; that is, they create a change in energy balance by touching, pressing, or massaging places on the body remote from the apparent location of the problem. Foot reflexology, a system that uses reflexes in the feet to affect changes in other parts of the body, is one the better known forms of reflexology, but there are many others.

In the early 1960's, Dr. George Goodheart developed a way to balance under-energy muscles and meridians by using neurolymphatic reflexes, originally discovered in the 1930's by Dr. Frank Chapman, and neurovascular reflexes, originally discovered by Dr. Bennett also in the 1930's. Dr. Goodheart named this new healing science Applied Kinesiology. Since that time Applied Kinesiology has grown into a broadly based system of healing with many applications.

With Dr. Goodheart's encouragement, Dr. John Thie introduced Touch for Health , based on concepts from Applied Kinesiology adapted for lay person use, in the early 1970's through the publication of the Touch for Health Book . Dr. Thie set up the Touch for Health Foundation to provide classes in Touch for Health and a continuing world-wide support network for people interested in Touch for Health . The Touch for Health Book has since been translated into many foreign languages and has been taught all over the world.

The new Energy Balancing Exercises described in our books and classes are derived from the basic concepts of energy balancing as taught by Touch for Health and make an excellent complement to these modalities.

Our bodies are excellent self healers, given the proper nutrients and opportunity to rest. We experience this every time we cut our finger or get a cold. By balancing the meridian energies we can further enhance this self-healing ability. Our bodies have an innate intelligence that regulates its state of balance to maintain proper operation of all our body functions without our conscious intervention.

We use a new type of balancing exercise which we call Basic Balancing Exercises. The fundamental idea behind these exercises is to make use of the body's innate intelligence to determine the specific muscles and meridians that need to be balanced. The exercise triggers the type of stressor to be corrected, and the body's innate intelligence creates an overall balance of the muscles and meridians that are out of balance in response to that stressor. This new type of balancing exercise sufficiently simplifies the balancing process to make it a practical do-it-yourself activity without muscle testing. However, muscle testing can be used as an optional biofeedback technique to monitor the effect of the balancing exercise. Muscle testing is not required for the balancing exercise to be effective.

We started using Basic Balance Exercises for 3-dimensional brain energy balance, frozen muscles (that is, over energy muscles and meridians), structural imbalances, and reactive muscles. We have since added many additional balancing modes to this concept.

Balancing reactive muscles is one of the most important procedures for dealing with structural and muscular pain, but all too often is neglected because of its apparent difficulty. The principal difficulty in balancing reactive muscles has been the problem of determining the proper priority muscle pairs for correction.

The Reactive Muscle Basic Balance takes care of this by using the body's innate intelligence to balance the key active reactive muscle pairs. One simple exercise will balance all active reactive muscle pairs without having to identify the specific reactive muscle pairs or having to manipulate specific muscles. The trick in balancing reactive muscles with the Reactive Muscle Basic Balance exercise is learning how to activate all the troublesome reactive muscles with simple body movements.

Energy Balancing is an exciting new and rapidly expanding healing science that offers new ways to deal with stress and pain and to heal our bodies and minds.

These unique exercises, developed by us from the principles of Touch for Health, are described and taught in our books, and also in our classes and lectures.