Self-Care and Mindfulness

Melbourne Front Line Worker and Emergency Nurse Eloise Forster, launched a much-needed wellness business, MoodMantras, during the initial Australia wide lockdown, when COVID first arrived on our shores. She is now a finalist in the national AusMumpreneur Awards in the Health and Fitness category.

Whilst working long shifts as an Emergency front line worker, Eloise saw an influx of patients presenting to Emergency, with what appeared to be cardiac symptoms, were often suffering the side effects of extreme overwhelm, stress and anxiety.

Eloise says: "I saw the correlation of how catatonic stress, in this case due to a pandemic, has a profound physical effect on the body. I felt compelled to introduce a holistic concept to the greater community and lessen the presentations that walk through the door leaving doctors and nurses exhausted."

As an avid meditator Eloise made it her mission to contribute and bridge the gap in existing services by addressing the need for both holistic healthcare and western medicine. She used lockdown to focus on her mindfulness skills by completing a Holistic Counselling and Meditation course. She then set about creating a business plan and launched her business online using social media. The determined 45-year-old mother started offering free meditations online during COVID, to generate some calm during such a tumultuous time. 

Eloise adds: "It became evident that the tendency to not self-care and include mindfulness in everyday life leaves people, including medical staff, overworked and often unable to live fulfilling and balanced lives. Stress not only impacts the individual patient but also the entire supporting medical fraternity."

The Emergency Nurse then wrote a course and an eBook with tips, tools, and practises to enable people to destress and revisit the concept of what they truly want out of life.

Since then, her business has moved from online counselling and meditation sessions to a face-to-face practise where she sees kids, teens, and adults around her emergency work.

"I saw a dire need to create something unique and tangible for teens and preteens due to the impact of COVID. The pandemic added to the increasing and unrelenting issues teenagers face relating to social media, peer pressure and friendship dynamics."

She teaches clients to integrate grounding practices in everyday life with tips and tools to build self-worth, self-esteem, and the importance of connecting mind, body, and soul as one.  All of which contributes to an individual's quality of life boosting immunity and less hospital presentations.

Ultimately, Eloise would like to integrate a wellness hub within the hospital environment so people can see first-hand the incredible results MoodMantras mindfulness has achieved with integrating a holistic approach with western medicine. The concept of MoodMantras ethos is that a doctor's assessment should include the question of what is going on for a patient emotionally, under all the layers of symptoms?

The next step being the opportunity for people to be offered a discharge plan that includes mindfulness sessions where people have a chance to offload, work through issues and connect to self. This is where true healing begins.

Eloise concludes: "The issue lies in people running on autopilot, always in a state of 'doing' as opposed to 'being' resulting in a feeling of unfulfillment and discontent which ultimately affects our physical being, the core backbone for better health all round."