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.

Honestly, you are "creating our life" daily. Whether you are doing this consciously or unconsciously is the question!

Creating your life is no different than designing the look you want for your bedroom, choosing a paint color for your house, or reworking your wardrobe. Rare is the person who JUST buys a car...in our culture your car reflects something about who you are, even if it has a crazy mural or stuff stuck all over it!

We find many ways of reflecting our individuality, usually within a perimeter of constraint, but not always! Creating your life means doing this "on purpose" with intention.

So, how can you"create" the life you really want?

• Day dreaming. Yes the thing you may have been told to stop doing as a child! Day dreaming 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". This is a spiritual truth regardless of your religious or non-religious orientation. Without a vision, an aspiration humans tend to de-volve into the doldrums of a joyless life. Day dreaming is building your vision.

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• Fostering 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! Zero Point Process provides a tool to release longstanding identities we have accumulated. It's one of many tools to heal and restore your sense of self.

 

• Cultivating intentions. By focusing on your dreams and hopes, rather than on what's not or what cannot happen,  you are shifting your thinking to more positive and energizing thoughts. More than this, it is important to understand that we are vibrational beings and as such we are affected by our thoughts. This is a fundamental understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine, from which the practice of Chi Kung arises. Chi Kung, Tai Chi, martial arts of the same sort all work with the vibrational self, through focused attention. 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.

It sounds so SIMPLE! Well, it is simple but not necessarily easy. Consistency is the key to success, but with any human activity involving establishing new habits, you won't stick with it if it isn't fun and enjoyable.

So, tapping into the most powerful human tendency....the search for pleasure, we find the key to setting intentions to work for you! Here are some suggestions to get you started.

• Create intention statements. See the downloadable handout below for guidance. This "Creating Intentions" doc 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 post cards, 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 use 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 it 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. OMG, she used the "F" word! Sometimes it's the only word to describe something hateful!! You know this voice and that it never has anything good to say. It always talks about what you aren't, what your faults are, how fat you are, how stupid...on and on. It also doesn't have much good to say about situations either. Everything is always going to turn out bad. Seriously this Station just plays and plays in the background. However it can be TURNED OFF. Begin by saying out loud the opposite of the messages you receive from K-F#@& Radio. 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 svelte". Practice makes perfect, 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 it's self 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. YIKES, that fly in the face of all those self help books! I love the line in the movie Julie & Julia, when the husbands 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. You may be thinking...this is just a difference of words. 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.... a powerful rush of stress hormones delivers a bad feeling though words.  WORDS ARE IMPORTANT. Trust me on this, set an intention, not a goal!

Having a vision for your life promotes HEALTH and WELLBEING.
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 through our feelings. By creating and dreaming your intention you will improve the way you feel and that's empowering!
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Happy Dreaming in 2020!

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