This is the first feature of IMS’ “Growing by Knowing” series. The series will focus on strengthening awareness of simple facts that can enhance quality of life. This week’s take on “Growing by Knowing” is quite literal. We’ll explore the wonders of wheatgrass and how you can grow, consume, and reap the benefits of its green goodness right at home.

SOME BENEFITS
Wheatgrass juice can dissolve scars formed in the lungs due to breathing acid gasses. The effect of carbon monoxide is minimized, because the chlorophyll within increases hemoglobin production.

Wheatgrass juice reduces high blood pressure & enhances the capillaries.

Wheatgrass juice is great for constipation and keeping the bowels open. It’s high in magnesium!

A small amount of wheatgrass juice helps prevents tooth decay.

Farmers in the Midwest who have sterile cows and bulls put them on wheatgrass to restore fertility. Why? The high magnesium content in chlorophyll builds enzymes that restore the sex hormones.

Wheatgrass Juice is one of the best sources of living chlorophyll available.

Chlorophyll is the first product of light and, therefore, contains more light energy than any other element.

GROWING BY KNOWING!
Bringing wheatgrass into your diet gives you the additional benefits of growing by knowing. You can experience the health benefits of wheatgrass, while cultivating it in the comfort of your home. Bringing life from the seed is a rewarding learning experience, and a great spring project to share in with friends or family. Kids love to take part in a kitchen “wheatgrass garden,” especially when then are able to reap tasty juices of their effort.

In order to ingest and benefit from your homegrown wheatgrass, you must buy organic seeds! Organic wheatgrass seeds are readily available online. Here’s just what you’ll need to create a 11″ x 21″ patch:”

• One greenhouse tray, without drainage.
• About 1.5 cups of wheat seed (wheatberries) organically grown either spring wheat and winter wheat are fine.
• Unbleached paper towels to fit the tray.
• Polyethylene sheet large enough to cover tray. (Keeps moisture in during the early sprouting.)
• Optional: Spray bottle for moistening seeds.

Day 1

• Wash the seeds in clean water, drain, and refill container to soak the seeds for 8 to 12 hours.
• Line the tray a couple of layers of unbleached paper towels. Saturate the liner with water and drain off excess.
• Spread one layer of soaked seeds as evenly as you can over the wet liner.
• Loosely cover with the poly sheet, to keep in moisture.

Day 2 and 3

• Lift plastic sprinkle seeds to keep moist. (They should be moist but not standing in water.)

Day 4

Wheat should be starting to grip the towel or baby blanket.

• If firmly attached, you may be able to lift the matting and pour 1/2 cup water into the tray.

Day 5

• Add about 1/2 cup water daily.
• Adjust to your conditions. Add more water if it seems too dry, less if too wet. You can allow the leaves to lift the loose polyethylene cover, in dry conditions. Remove if conditions are moist or mould is noted.

Day 6 to 9

• Continue adding water every day.
• You may need to increase the water quantity a bit as the wheatgrass gets taller.

Day 10 +

• Cut the wheatgrass as needed, with a scissors or sharp knife.
• Cut close to the roots, but above any traces of mold that might be evident at the root level. Rinse and juice with a wheatgrass juicer, or grind in a blender with water and strain.
• If you choose to continue watering the wheatgrass, it will continue to grow for 5 or 10 more days as you use it.

TIPS

• OK temperatures: between 60F – 75F. Ideal temperature is 67F.
• Avoid direct sunlight, bright indirect light is OK. Fluorescent light is OK as well.
• Dry air is preferable to humid, if mold is a problem.
• Using a fan to move air is useful if mold is a problem.
• Wheatgrass can be cut as short as 3.5″ tall and may grow to may get 7 or 8 inches tall.

RESOURCES
I’m including some useful wheatgrass linkage below. A Google search provides volumes of recipes that incorporate wheatgrass. Explore and discover a combination that’s just to your taste.

As always, feel free to contact the IMS office for more information on freshly grown wheatgrass or to learn about available wheatgrass supplements or post your own wheatgrass stories by leaving a comment below!

What is Personal Coaching?
Personal coaching is a relationship between a client and coach that is based on the client’s expressed interests, goals, and objectives. Inquiry, reflection, and discussion with a personal coach allows for a partnership in healing that strengthens the identification of goals to be achieved and the development of strategies to be implemented toward reaching a desired experience. Together coach and client evolve a plan to suit the individual client’s needs according to his or her environment. The coach provides an unbiased, professional insight and teaches skills to empower the client.

How is Personal Coaching Applied?

Coaching can help you reach your goals by providing support, encouragement, and avenues to overcome obstacles. Like working with a play director, the relationship between personal coach and client is synergistic. The creativity of two minds working together in a noncritical, supportive way is incredibly effective for reaching optimal being.

At IMS, clients may enter into treatment seeking coaching to overcome anxiety, phobias, or to increase the overall quality of their health. Others come in without prior knowledge of personal coaching and find that it is an excellent modality in combination with others such as acupuncture, nutritional supplements, etc. Coaching can help you…

• Improve relationships
• Gain new perspectives
• Effectively organize your environment
• Resolve negative patterns
• Improve your health
• Teach you to break through feelings that hinder you from taking action on your goals
• Help you get a clear vision of how you want your life to be
• Have a deeper connection with your spirituality
• Remind you of your strengths and gifts

…in the context of a powerful support system!

Your sessions will be customized to meet your needs. This means each session is unique and shaped to meet your needs at the time of interaction. The title of Gauguin’s most famous painting, “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” comes to mind when I think of the ways clients arrive at the big picture in personal coaching. A session aims to arrive at appropriate actions or steps that will move you toward a balance. Whether presenting complaints are psychological or physical in nature, the emotional intelligence and spiritual growth afforded by personal coaching heals while supplying you with tools for future prevention.

Psychoneuroimmunology: An Integrative Approach
Terminologies like psychoneuoimmunology are cropping up in medical texts to account for the multidimensional nature of sickness and health. The AMA (American Medical Association) now recognizes that up to 85% of disease is related to stress. Life is a continual journey through experience, and stress is a part of adapting to any change. Many people cope well with stress and remain healthy when confronting difficulties. What can be done when experiencing what’s called an “immune-suppression/dysfunction prone” pattern? Dr. Margo de Kooker’s lists these buffers against immune system depression and disease progression in her article “Psychoneuroimmunology: An Overview”:

1. Awareness of your mind-body feedback
2. Learning how to view life with a sense of commitment
3. Managing control and challenge
4. Developing strengths to fall back on in the wake of loss
5. Capacity to confide traumas and feelings to yourself and others

As a field, psychoneuroimmunology reflects the growing consciousness of a need for eclectic therapies. In an integrative approach with personal coaching healthcare “becomes [in Dr. de Kooker's words] an adventure into awareness and a constant revelation of the complexities of the human condition.”

To learn more about how personal coaching may enrich your life and boost your health, please contact our office.