As the time before the wedding was gobbled up by all the tasks at hand, James' time for the balancing slipped away.  An 11th hour phone call was received, "Why don't you come here since we are running out of time, and let's see, you have about 15 minutes once you get here!"  Yikes!  Nothing like a little challenge to get the energy flowing!  I grabbed my laptop and went to the car and started remembering the sequence of turns from our room in Tyson's Corner to his home.  Was that a right, two lefts, a right, another left and then two rights or was that...?  If you have ever been to Washington, you will realize what I am talking about. Streets have been designed more for preventing invasions and confusing enemies than for getting from point A to Point B the most efficiently.

Luckily, I made all the correct turns and went to the door and there was a bit of excitement as 'Uncle Earl' had arrived to help Dad.  It was chaos at the house.  People were getting dressed in every room and all the groom's men and Mom were all busy at work getting the tuxedoes just right and polishing the shoes and trying to calm the nerves and... Dad and I had only a few minutes to work and went about testing the relevant muscles for his back pain.  

I thought it might be easier to do the balancing in a bedroom out of the way of everyone.  But, of course, everyone is in the bedrooms getting dressed so we ended up in the middle of the living room floor!  Since stress is such a big part of most ailments and imbalances, I did a quick ESR (Emotional Stress Relief) on James to get the stress out of the way as we went to work to find where we needed to focus.  Luckily, drum roll please, I had my trusty laptop and our software, eTouch for Health running.  Without eTouch, I would of never had the confidence and courage to do what I had volunteered to do... help get my brother back into shape to attend and enjoy his son's wedding occurring just a little while later and to a point that he could enjoy the celebrations.

As we were testing and balancing, people were stepping over us, bumping into us and more than once asked, "What ARE you doing?"  My quick response was, "I am testing James' circuits and looking for the place to focus in restoring the flow of energy to relieve his pain."  In this very fast evaluation, it became obvious that James' Abs had 'tripped their circuit' and needed resetting.  Most will ask why you are focusing on the stomach area when the pain is in the back!  Well, energy kinesiology is focused on restoring the flow of energy where it is needed and not necessarily at the spot of the pain.  Since muscles often work in opposing pairs, the pain can be in the strong muscle since it is doing its job AND compensating for the weak muscles job and going into spasm.  The basic theory is, find and re-energize the weak muscle and the strong muscle can relax, won't spasm and the pain will go away.

As I was leaving to come over to the house, my wife, Gail had reminded me, "Be sure to check the Abs!" Good advice and the problem was found. I had been entering my testing results into the eTouch software on my laptop and could not of remembered what I had done because of all the excitement if I had not been doing so.  I found the spots to work for the abs and James starting getting immediately stronger.    James could barely lift himself from the floor in the initial Abdominal muscles tests, but after using TFH, he could easily lift himself from the floor and the pain was gone from his back.  

With a worried look on her face, James' wife, Faye asked, "Is he going to be OK?"  I replied, "Yes, it looks as if it is his abs that have gone out and they are coming back fine now."  Faye laughed and winked at James and said, "James, do you remember that new ab machine you saw at the gym and tried a few times?"  So it seems that James and Faye, in another wedding tradition, had been at the gym and with the big wedding coming up had decided to do 'a little extra' to trim up and look good in their formal attires!  And, as it turns out in life sometimes, things aren't always what they seem.  James' back was hurting, but it was his abdominal muscles that had 'tripped their breaker' and needed attention.

As I ran from the house so that I could get back, shower and get dressed myself, I grabbed a sandwich to eat on the way and headed back to the room.  Now was that a left, two rights and...

That night at the reception, and after watching James at the wedding and now dancing at the celebration, I asked him how the back and abs were holding up?  He replied, "Great!"  About a month after the wedding, I asked him what he thought about the experience and he replied, "I don't know how eTouch (TFH) works, but I know it does.  After a single session of eTouch, the pain and discomfort left allowing me to dance and move with ease and confidence.  As well, the metaphors are right on target and have been truly life-transforming."

Now if you think that being able to help someone enjoy a great experience by helping relieve them of pain in only minutes is neat, wait until you hear about the metaphors!

Earl Cook
August 5, 2004