Press Release – Mindfulness Event
Mullingar Chamber held its mindfulness event last Friday in Eason’s Mullingar. Aisling Coleman, Office Manager at Mullingar Chamber of Commerce, addressed the attendees and welcomed the 4 speakers for the 2hr event.
The first speaker was Sancha Moran, Better Self Holistic Therapy. Sancha is Brazilian and has been living in Ireland for the past 12 years and is married to an Irish man, with 2 amazing kids, one of whom is a child with Autism. Her son, Liam, was diagnosed in November 2019 and since then, Sancha has done much research and studying into Autism. She also found that being a full-time carer has its challenges and how easily it can is to forget who we really are and who we want to be for our children. She noted there was no support specifically for people who care for others and Sancha set out about changing that. Sancha spoke about how to care for yourself first – like flight attendants say “put your own mask on before doing it for someone else” Carers also need care, they need a place of love and understanding and healing. She provided a self-care plan which can be viewed on https://mullingarchamber.ie/mindfulness-month
The next speaker was Fiona O Neill, CareFreeMe. Fiona is a qualified general nurse, has a Hons Degree in Occupational Health Nursing and an MBA, a Yoga Teacher, has a Diploma in Nutritional Therapy, a qualified Mindfulness Teacher and a Natural Chef and has trained in Martial Arts! She told an emotional story about finding herself and her travels to India and coming home and getting caught back up in everything she thought was right including volunteering for Childline and being burnt out because of not looking after herself. She returned to India and came back to Ireland to live by the Sea. It was there she saw a sign “Meditation Starting Monday” and this is how her journey to CareFreeMe Started. CareFreeMe gives you all The Tools You Need to Build A Happy, Healthy Life. Fiona offers 1:1 coaching, staff support in the workplace through projects and workshops and facilities retreats. She is running her next lifestyle retreat on the 6th of July in Creacon Wellness Retreat, Co Wexford. The Retreat focuses on daily changes that can make a huge positive impact on your life from within. You will learn tools to support your lifestyle with rest, digestion and mindfulness being the main topics in the serene and tranquil surroundings of Creacon.
The third speaker was Grace Kinirons, My Wellness Transition. From Mullingar, Grace graduated from the University of Westminster with a BSc (Hons) in Health Sciences & Nutritional Therapy, has a Post Graduate Certificate in Nutritional Medicine, an MA in Dramatherapy from NUI Maynooth and is qualified in Personal Training and Group Fitness. She runs nutrition workshops and exercise programmes focusing on all aspects of health, particularly menopause and healthy aging. She is a member of the Nutritional Therapists of Ireland (NTOI) & CIMSPA. Grace spoke about the importance of movement and being active. She told how we were created to move but have lost our way now. She told the audience that keeping active allows us to keep our independence for longer and how it doesn’t all have to be an actual exercise that cleaning is classed as a movement. Grace spoke about nutrition and how to use food for stress relief. She brought her bag of tricks and showed us some of the vitamins needed for a healthy diet and how balancing glucose with proteins, for example swapping white for wholegrain options, is important as excessive amounts of glucose can stress the body even further as when you crash from the sugar intake it can make you gittery and craving more. Other supplements she showed were Vitamin D where deficiency can lead to a loss of bone density, which can contribute to osteoporosis and fractures, Magnesium (Lotion or capsules) where deficiency can muscle spasms. Other supplements included one for helping you feel calmer Balance for Nerves (fast working) and recommended relaxing mixes from local health food shops that help take the edge off. Fish Oils and Herbal Teas were recommended for long-term use. Grace finished up by reminding us to look at the food we are eating and think “Is it giving us something or is it taking away something”
The last speaker of the afternoon was Olive MacDonagh from Butterfly Cottage Retreat in Delvin. Olive is a sound healer and energy therapist, holistic nutritionist, kundalini yoga & meditation teacher and mantra artist. Olive is a nature lover with a passion for growing and foraging food in her beautiful garden. She has created wonderful online courses, notebook journals and relaxing mantra music and has been featured in Positive Life Magazine, Women’s Way Magazine and the Elaine show as a recommended place to visit for a health boost and some restorative time out. Olive spoke about her life as a chartered accountant before becoming ill and having to have 5 surgeries which ultimately led to finding her true passion. Olive spoke about juicing and how it can increase lifeforce, vitamins and minerals in your diet, increase energy, decrease inflammation, reset your digestive system and help protect the body’s immune system. Juicing allows the body time for recovery, cleanses the body and helps the body to function better. Olive spoke about how vegetables are more mineral-based and strengthening whereas fruit is more cleansing and vitamin based. She recommended we eat fresh food with the least amount of travel time and as colourful as possible. Her top tips for juicing were Always have your juicer on the counter – don’t hide it away, Always clean your juicer after you use it – make it as easy as possible for its next use and Stock up on fresh fruit and veg. She recommended not putting everything under the sun in the one juice but having colour and flavour themes while finding out what you like first – try Orange, Lemon and Ginger or Apple, Spinach and Fennel or Beetroot, Ginger, Cucumber and Lemon. Olive finished off her speech with a movement music meditation with everyone called “Bountiful, Beautiful Bliss” from her Divine Creative Power Album. It was a great afternoon full of great eye-opening experiences, we look forward to the next Mullingar Chamber event.
Find out more about Mullingar Chamber’s mindfulness Month campaign at https://mullingarchamber.ie/mindfulness-month/