Monte Cunningham, founder of the Acu-Ki Institute and Stressaway Accupressure, is now offering free presentations with demonstrations and advice on using his techniques and tools for relieving chronic pain at 8 a.m. Friday mornings at the Cedar Hills Senior and Community Center, located at 9419 Concho Hwy, in Snowflake.
The free presentations are provided as a courtesy and also to help raise funds for the non-profit. “I cover my costs and then the rest goes to the center,” explained Cunningham, who has a variety of tools and books available for sale as well. Patrons can also enjoy a hot breakfast while they listen and shop the thrift store.
For many years, Cunningham suffered back pain after an injury sustained during a high school football game. On his website he wrote, “My aspirations in sports, law, politics, and social life came to a screeching halt with the intermittent and unexplainable pain resulting from my injury.”
After undergoing two back surgeries, he still struggled with pain until being diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, an untreatable form of Rheumatoid Arthritis characterized by inflammation and calcifying of the spine.
Rather than be content living with the pain or treating with expensive and often addictive painkillers, as professionals had suggested, he began trying alternative therapies, including diets, exercise and meditation with little measureable results.
“At one point in my search I realized that I had learned many of the techniques I needed to heal myself. I only needed to apply what I knew…” wrote Cunningham in his biography.
Using what he knew, he created a wooden tool for massaging his own back but soon friends and family were requesting them as well and, by 1984, his Stressaway Massager had made its way into 480 department stores across the country.
One day Cunningham realized that the massager was stimulating acupressure points and, over time, he began to develop additional tools and even authored several books with diagrams detailing his techniques that combine acupressure and reflexology and ways to treat over 4,000 conditions.
“These books are a good map of one path to better health and happiness – a path that has been around for thousands of years,” he writes.
“I got a 78 percent average reduction in pain in just five minutes,” says Cunningham at his presentation, directing the small crowds’ attention to a diagram of survey results obtained from 1,148 people who tried his program.
Challenged by a friend, he went even further to develop a small kit with a book of diagrams and tools for treating 20 of the most common conditions for about $10.
“I developed these small kits for places like India where they don’t have a lot of money,” said Cunningham. Going on to explain that in impoverished places, chronic pain can contribute heavily to an individual’s inability to work and conventional treatments may be hard to find or afford.
Still that wasn’t enough for him, Cunningham wanted to bring healing to just about anyone who sought it, regardless of their economic situation. Because tools might not be readily available in those areas, he created his “10 Day Stop the Pain Challenge”. Available online for only $4.95, the online program teaches the student the same techniques using the handle of a toothbrush through the ebook, diagrams, webinars, internet training and support.
In his quest to bring pain relief to the masses, he adds, “I have proposed current research programs in progress in South Africa, India and over 30 medical facilities in the United States.”
Those unable to attend a presentation can learn more by visiting stress-away.com, emailing info@stopthepainchallenge.com or calling (888) 853-0646.
