Capsicum annuum, or Cayenne pepper as it is commonly called is a moderately hot chili pepper. Cayenne peppers are tapering fruits, 10 to 25 cm long, skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved tip and somewhat rippled skin. There are many varieties, most are rated at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. The heat is the thing with cayenne. The benefit as an herb and super food derives from it's ability to bring the FIRE!
Dried and ground to make the powdered spice, culinary blends may be comprised of different types of peppers, quite often not containing cayenne peppers. Which is fine for cooking spicy dishes, but when it comes to use as an herb/super food, you want the real thing.
Cayenne ranked as renown Herbalist, Jethro Kloss's number one "go to" herbs. Added to herbal tinctures cayenne promotes an increase in the function of other herbs, a boosting power. This fire stoking herb is an adaptogen, in that it can stimulate and calm. For example in cases of low blood pressure, cayenne will increase the blood pressure and stimulate vitality in one who is listless. On the other hand, when someone is suffering with high blood pressure and anxious, cayenne provides a relaxing influence! The mysterious world of medicinal plants!

Medicinal Properties of Cayenne Pepper

• Anti-Irritant - Irritation can happen in the body for any number of reasons. Toxic diet, illness, and environmental pollution, pollen, just to list a few. Ironically, cayenne will "put out the fire" and calm the body by affecting the nervous system. It works like a hot bath for your body, from the inside out! Nothing works so well to ease an upset stomach, soothe sore throats, calm coughs, and stop diarrhea.
• Decongestion & Anti-imflammatory - Cayenne pepper aids in breaking up and moving congested mucus. So, whether your suffering from bronchitis, a cold or planning a detox you can count on cayenne to help break up cellular debris, breakdown bio-film and clear away congestion and inflammation. Add cayenne pepper to a poultice for increased action, excellent when use with castor oil poultice to decongest the liver and gall bladder. Learn more about poultices. Cayenne is excellent remedy for asthma. If nothing else is available a few shakes of true cayenne pepper in hot water will reduce severity of asthma attacks.
• Antimicrobial - When it comes to defense against harmful organisms, cayenne is a proverbial surgical flame thrower. In vitro tests have found that CAY-1, a compound found in cayenne peppers, effectively suppressed the development of 16 different fungal strains, while remaining completely non-toxic to animal cells. Inside and out, no matter where a bacterial infection is seated cayenne topically or internally will clear microbial infections. It is an excellent remedy for a troubled gut!
• Pain Relief - Cayenne pepper stimulates dopamine production which is helpful for relieving pain, but additionally it's heat factor actually stimulates a pain response. This action depletes nerve cells of substance "P" (a nerve pain chemical) which is needed for pain to subside. Very handy property. Taken internally for overall body pain, or used locally as a tincture cayenne takes the pain away. 
• Digestive Aid - Cayenne stimulates the digestive tract by increasing enzyme production and gastric juices. With a lack of gastric juices and enzymes, digestion is hampered, detoxification is incomplete and the body becomes overburden with waste. Cayenne pepper is also helpful for relieving intestinal gas. It stimulates intestinal peristaltic motion making it an excellent support for those with chronic constipation. Jethro Kloss used it to heal stomach ulcers. With it's antimicrobial properties, ability to stimulate gastric fluids, reduce inflammation, hard as it is to believe the heat heals!
• Promotes Cardiovascular Health - Cayenne pepper helps reduce atherosclerosis, encourages fibrinolytic activity, and prevents factors that lead to the formation of blood clots, all of which can help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. Stabilizes blood pressure as well.
• Promotes Longevity - Data collected from almost half a million people worldwide found that those who ate spicy foods had a 14% chance of living longer than those that didn’t. Researchers also found that regular consumption of chili peppers equated to reduced rates of death from respiratory disease, heart concerns, cancer.
• Improves Metabolic Function - Scientists at Laval University in Quebec found that participants who took cayenne pepper for breakfast were found to have less appetite, leading to less caloric intake throughout the day. Cayenne is also a great metabolic booster and aids the body in burning excess fat.

The bottom line on this fiery, red hot herb...put it to use! Best source for cayenne for cooking is the bulk department at a natural foods stores or on-line. Check to make sure it has it's Latin botanical name, Capsicum annuum. Look for liniments and pain relieving ointments that contain capsicum, the phenol of cayenne peppers. Capsules are the best method for taking internally. 1-2 capsule per ingestion are more than sufficient, up to 6 - capsules per day depending on the condition you are wanting to improve.

As a Wellness Practitioner I spend a lot of time with my clients. I listen to how they speak about themselves, what kinds of statement do they tend to make about their lives.

The self-talk script is format of beliefs that we play out in our daily life. It plays in our hearts and minds. It is a story we tell ourselves about who we are, what we believe and what choices we have. 

If it is self limited it holds you prisoner to false beliefs. You are continuously "creating our life" every minute of everyday. Whether you are doing this consciously or unconsciously is the question!

How to's to support "creating" or "evolving" your life?

• Daydreaming. Yes the thing you may have been told to stop doing as a child! Daydreaming is visualization at it's finest. It is POWERFUL! Imagine and dream about the life you want, the job, the look of your life, your home, how you would like to spend your time. Proverbs 29:18, this Bible passage tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish". Evolving your life/consciousness is a spiritual truth regardless of your religious or non-religious orientation. Without a vision, an aspiration humans tend to de-evolve into the doldrums of a joyless life. Daydreaming is a way of building your vision.

​

• Foster a sense that you deserve to have the life you want or have dreamt of. This one can be tricky. You may have grown up with messages that squelched this belief or filled you with a sense of worthlessness, no worries...it's not terminal, unless you choose it to be!  The Zero Point Process our Heart modality provides a tool to release longstanding identities and misbeliefs we have accumulated from the programing of childhood and inheritance of our families way of seeing things. Anything that reinforces a positive shift in the way you see yourself will heal and restore your sense of self.

 

• Cultivating intentions. By focusing on your dreams and hopes, rather than on what's not happening or what you believe cannot happen,  you shift your thinking to more positive and energizing thoughts. It is important to understand that we are vibrational beings and as such we are affected down to our microbiology by our thoughts. This is a fundamental understanding of Taoist Medicine, from which the practice of Chi Kung arises. Chi Kung, Tai Chi, martial arts of the similar sort all work with the vibrational self, through focused attention/noticing. Like a martial arts master you are able to focus your attention on what you want to create and learn to resist chronic thought patterns that keep you in the squirrel cage of negative thinking. This is replacing old chi (energy and information) for new chi, a new way of seeing and being, literally. This renewal of vital energy will propel you seemingly magically toward your new beliefs. You will conform to your vision as an evolution of consciousness.

 

• Noticing patterns. Noticing patterns of thoughts and behaviours is the starting point for shifting your intentions. Here's an example of noticing a pattern.... if someone who makes you feel good you will enjoy being around them and you would choose their company over others! If we have a need to abuse ourselves out of self hatred you will/may feel insecure in relationships that offer us comfort and hope and tend to push away from or avoid supporting relationships. Noticing this pattern is the clue about your life pattern. An intention statement such as, "I am deserving of love and respect from myself and others", would be a good place to start shifting that consciousness. Noticing, focusing awareness on what is unevolved and of a lower consciousness allows you to accept what is and apply a sense of nonjudgmental love to that. The more you notice it with love for yourself the sooner you'll decide you don't need it anymore. 

Success Tip: The process of recreating your life is simple but not necessarily easy. As with any human activity involving establishing new habits, you won't stick with it if it isn't fun and enjoyable. Find a way to see this as something playful. Start small with one new and simply intention, such as "I am changing the way I see myself"!

Here are some suggestions to get you started creating your life.

• Intention statements. See the downloadable "Creating Intentions"handout below for guidance. This  doc provides a set of intention statements and is a helpful guide for creating and distilling your intention statements. As you invest the time in refining your intention statement(s), you are stepping onto the pathway to conscious choices, rather than allowing the flow of your life to be randomly oriented by circumstances.

 

• Build a tangible version of your dream or intentions. Take a tip from "Eat, Pray, Love" a wonderful story by Elizabeth Gilbert. Buy a trunk or suitcase to keep your vision tokens in. These can be postcards, travel brochures, a bikini that represent your ideal physique...anything that allows you to SEE your vision more clearly. A vision board collage using magazine cut outs or a digital version using Pinterest, which is a great vision board tool! Not your thing? Write it out, instead. Ramble on paper or on your computer, play with it! Refine your vision like a story, a novella of your life as you would like it to be. Dare to imagine something wonderful that would satisfy your SOUL. MAKE IT REAL!!
• End the voice of K-F#@& Radio in your head. The "F" word! Sometimes it's the only word to describe something hateful!! You know this voice. It never has anything good to say about you or anything else. This voice arises from generations of programming and is literally in your DNA. It always about what you aren't, your faults, how fat you are, how stupid...on and on. This station plays and plays in the mind. It can be very subtle or obvious. It can be TURNED OFF. Saying out loud the opposite of the messages you receive from this voice. If it says your fat, reframe that as a POSITIVE STATEMENT.  "Everything I eat is making me thinner and healthier now" or "I am healthy, strong and the right weight for me". Practice this and in no time at all that voice will disappear.
• Teach yourself to speak in positive "I AM" statements. I am strong, I am beautiful inside and out, I am able. "I AM that I AM" was the description the Divine presence used of itself when the patriarch Moses asked the burning bush, "Who shall I say sent me?". The "I AM" identity, means being always in a state of becoming...it's as simple as that, I AM ...fill in the blank with what you choose to become!
• Give up resolutions, goals and deadlines. This flies in the face of all those self help books! In the movie Julie & Julia, Julie's husband says of deadlines..."I love a deadline, especially the sound it makes as it goes whooshing past". There is nothing more demoralizing that setting a resolution, a goal or a deadline and then failing. It's another strike against you because of your attachment to the outcome. Failure implies you are a failure. You may be thinking...this is just a difference of words, semantics. Yes, it is because words are important! The words we use to speak to ourselves are especially important. To illustrate that point, remember the last time someone said something to you that hurt your feelings. An emotional sucker punch brings a powerful rush of stress hormones delivering a bad feeling though words.  WORDS ARE IMPORTANT. Trust me on this, set an intention, not a goal!

Creating a dream version of yourself and your life is an art form that will yield amazing results over time. In the end you will FEEL more confident and capable. The true stuff of life we experience viscerally through our feelings. By creating and dreaming your intention you will improve the way you feel on every level and that's empowering!
​

Supportive Reading:
The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz
The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Waking the Tiger, Peter Levine
Book of Secrets, Deepak Chopra
* Be encouraged to buy used books!

Happy Dreaming 
Vanessa Goldeen
Founder of Bridge to Health
A Commonsense Approach to Health and Wellness