A blissful setting of panoramic ocean views coupled with bubbly greeted guests at the magnificent Abalone Guest Lodge. Out on a patio with stacking glass doors, champagne air and warm chatter set the tone for an uplifting experience. The second Seeff Fernkloof Ladies event was a huge success, leaving everyone with food for thought, mentally as well as by the plate. Creation Wines awed everyone with tasty - and healthy to boot! - morsels paired with their noteworthy wines.
Divine AND healthy food pairings included: Viognier with an artichoke and pickled sea lettuce (foraged by the chefs); Reserve Chardonnay with a delectable springbok tartare; Pinot Noir with a decadent smokey Belnori Phantom Ash, butternut and beetroot; and Cape Vintage dessert wine with port truffles made using their Cape Fine Vintage. Bubbly for the evening included their sensational Elation MCC which only includes natural residual sugar, no added dosage.
The speeches started with a heartfelt introduction by Creation Wines' co-owner and marketing director, Carolyn Martin, to welcome the evening's first speaker, Dr Julienne Fenwick. Dr Fenwick practices integrative medicine, believing in the restorative powers of nature before modern medicine, to tap into the body's own capabilities to heal and increase energy. The second to captivate the audience was the enthralling motivational speaker Doné van Wyk, who guided guests through an understanding of our feelings and emotions and the power we can have over them.
The power to change our health and to live optimally lies with us. Dr Fenwick guided us on how to create and not lose the finite amount of energy we have in our day. We cannot be at our best when we are so exhausted that we are in a constant state of fight or flight which is maxing out our adrenals; causing stress, fatigue and affecting our hormones. These hormones are produced in our gut and they are responsible for our moods, hunger, thirst, motivation, sex drive, and more.
We need to sort out our bodies first, detox, and clean out the muck between our hormone receptors. To unlock them, boost absorption, sustain our blood sugar, blood pressure and so much more. We have to take responsibility for our health in a world full of rich food and alcohol that places an inflammatory burden on our bodies, which leads to ailments such as cancer and high blood pressure.
Dr Fenwick is a foodie and loves good wine. She explained that you can have a Creation Wines full course dining experience and a little too much wine, and you'll still feel fantastic the next day. It's about what we eat. From her own personal experience of healing a leaky gut, working with someone in homoeopathy spurred her journey as a functional medicine doctor, "to walk with [patients] as a guide. We're not taught this in medical school... [being] generous, real, non-clinical. I want this to be the future of medicine."
We do not always have to eat healthily, it's not about the 20% of the time that we are out or with friends and family. It's about the 80% of the time that you decide what to buy and what to make that will boost your energy. She recommends substitutes such as MannaBrew instead of coffee, flavoursome macadamia milk instead of dairy milk, and bitters for mocktails instead of alcohol, all information she shares openly on her website.
We also need to rejuvenate our relationship between ourselves and nature, harness the gift of Fernkloof Nature Reserve and make time in nature. Rekindle that love and you will not want to put that unhealthy thing in your mouth. The combination of connecting with nature and eating cleaner, as nature intended, will boost your energy.
Doné van Wyk led the conversation next, stating that energy is such a brilliant thing. We can feel each others' energy up to 16 m away. We are fortunate to live in an era that tries to understand emotions as scientific and part of the essence of being human. We are emotional machines that think, not thinking machines that emote. If we channel our emotions right it is a gift for optimal living. So that we can get to a point of avoiding the enemies to happiness and consciously choose who we want to be.
Emotions are deeply rooted and habitual learnt behaviour because of experiences with family, friends, bosses... all hot-wiring our limbic system. This is the part of the brain involved in our behavioural and emotional responses, especially when it comes to behaviours we need for survival. We first feel a feeling and then emotions follow.
They play an important role in our health, memory, sleep, the experiences we have, in feeling invigorated, creative... We don't need to put emotions aside, they have a role to play. They protect us, for instance when we cross the road the feeling of fear tells us to look out for cars. They help us to establish our current reality: who can I share with and trust, and help us to understand others better.
It's thus important for our safety, but it becomes a problem when we become our mood, and allow our emotions to govern us and rule our temperament. Emotions are meant to safeguard us. If we surrender to our emotions it becomes our mood, over time it becomes our personality, and eventually, we can even see marked changes in our DNA.
Luckily the same effect applies to positive emotions. Over time, by choosing our emotions, there are marked changes in our DNA. The impact of positive emotions is infinite, the abilities of the brain amplified, and the ability to problem-solve, connect, share and enter community is improved. It amplifies our ability to make good and healthy decisions and tap into our innate ability to be magnificent.
When we are stuck in negative emotions, we cannot focus, we lose creativity and disengage and surrender to our old selves. The prefrontal cortex disengages, and we do not look beyond tomorrow, we are hijacked hampering our ability to see further than today.
It's easier to moan, to highlight others' flaws than to highlight their marvel. We need to learn to reappraise and flip it around. We are not the victims of our emotions, we are the creators of our emotions. Know that you are in control and that if you can dream it you can see it. Over time, you can choose what you want to feel and think.
How? We need to choose to not just feel emotions and let them ride with us while we indulge in wine, ice cream and Calmettes or Urbanol. In not taking control, negative emotions bypass to the immune system leading to ulcers, migraines, and adrenal fatigue. We need to get to a point of identifying, stopping and changing it.
Decide to choose better, and through hard work, we can even choose the emotion before it comes in. The impact is marvellous, we can heal from the inside out and achieve harmony from within. Emotions are a vehicle for growth and to flourish, it's a gift to be intuitive, to see beyond the obvious, to connect and interact.
The choice is within you. What makes some succeed and content, and others not? A recent study says "grit" - a stickiness to thrive, to rumble. It's not easy and it's not pretty. You need to conquer around every turn. But your purpose is not 10 years away, it's this beautiful moment, choosing encouraging words, which accumulates into one marvellous life lived and not witnessed.
Your life is in your hands. Each of us has the ability to thrive, but we have to choose it, rumble courageously and with grit and don't miss a moment. Reinvent yourself from a victim to a conqueror.
A celebration of the new season, kicked off by extraordinary women who all added immense value to this uplifting event, inspiring each and every one to amplify the energy and power within ourselves. There were some lovely gifts that a few lucky ladies won, including a
Creation food & wine experience as well as a few bottles of their delicious wines, a restaurant voucher from Pear Tree Restaurant (which, like Creation Wines, has the nod of approval from Dr Fenwick for delicious and healthy cuisine), reflexology sessions from Lisa Smith of Body Balance, and Just Pure Bistro vouchers for products or dining.
Thank you to agents Madeleine Laarman and Adré Niemand for arranging this top-notch event with the support of Seeff Hermanus.
Author Ruché Ten Have