Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities.
She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges.
In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines.
Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.
Something inspirational: “Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.” DORIS LESSING Thinking for yourself means more than having your own opinions. It means owning your words, your choices, and ...
Something inspirational: "We are not what happened to us. We are what we choose to become.” JAMES HOLLIS "I am drawn to James Hollis's words: 'We are not what happened to us. We are what we choose ...
Something inspirational: "Healing begins when we can hold our own experience with compassion." TARA BRACH Brach's quote reminds us that healing begins when we meet our pain with kindness instead of judgement ...
Mistakes are the one good thing I'm at! I can definitely tell people what Not to do in their life, seeing as I've done so many things wrong.
I've had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way, after trying to do things the same way and always getting the same results. When you live your life a certain way for so long, you don't even realize that you're doing things wrong, since no one ever really taught me the difference.
The one character flaw that people have taken advantage of the most, has been my compassion since I've always been a sucker for a sob story and a pretty face. Now I have to really rein in my compassion so I don't waste the rest of my life trying to help those who don't want to help themselves!
Thanks Randy. It would be like flogging a dead horse! It's lovely to think we can help other people, but I don't really see the point trying to help people who don't want to help themselves.
I think mistakes are good. It shows we're trying; it also shows we're learning, learning that we've made a mistake, that perhaps we need to try again. Try a different route. Without mistakes I'm not sure how we learn or grow.
We achieve the most growth through mistakes, if we're prepared to learn of course.
I once saw a grown man openly cry, because he pushed his daughter to the brink of insanity by forcing her to achieve unrealistic levels of academic perfection. He made the mistake of not affording her the right to make mistakes. She probably felt like she was as good as her last move in every academic endeavor.
The slice of peace I enjoy now came by way of mistakes, and I wouldn't want to grow any other way.
Thanks Tim. I agree. Your story is so sad to put such pressure like that on a child, at such a young age.
Your response brings back a memory for me when my child had a spelling test in school and he got 99% and instead of his teacher congratulating him on the 99% he wanted to know whether he was annoyed because he missed out on the 1% mark. Not the best advice!
We learn and grow through our mistakes, but we have to be allowed to make them. I believe they are part of life's rich tapestry.
Mistakes are the one good thing I'm at! I can definitely tell people what Not to do in their life, seeing as I've done so many things wrong.
I've had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way, after trying to do things the same way and always getting the same results. When you live your life a certain way for so long, you don't even realize that you're doing things wrong, since no one ever really taught me the difference.
The one character flaw that people have taken advantage of the most, has been my compassion since I've always been a sucker for a sob story and a pretty face. Now I have to really rein in my compassion so I don't waste the rest of my life trying to help those who don't want to help themselves!
Thanks Randy. It would be like flogging a dead horse! It's lovely to think we can help other people, but I don't really see the point trying to help people who don't want to help themselves.
I think mistakes are good. It shows we're trying; it also shows we're learning, learning that we've made a mistake, that perhaps we need to try again. Try a different route. Without mistakes I'm not sure how we learn or grow.
We achieve the most growth through mistakes, if we're prepared to learn of course.
I once saw a grown man openly cry, because he pushed his daughter to the brink of insanity by forcing her to achieve unrealistic levels of academic perfection. He made the mistake of not affording her the right to make mistakes. She probably felt like she was as good as her last move in every academic endeavor.
The slice of peace I enjoy now came by way of mistakes, and I wouldn't want to grow any other way.
Thanks Tim. I agree. Your story is so sad to put such pressure like that on a child, at such a young age.
Your response brings back a memory for me when my child had a spelling test in school and he got 99% and instead of his teacher congratulating him on the 99% he wanted to know whether he was annoyed because he missed out on the 1% mark. Not the best advice!
We learn and grow through our mistakes, but we have to be allowed to make them. I believe they are part of life's rich tapestry.
A perfect quote. It is precisely our screw ups that make us who we are as we muddle our through and learn our life's lessons.
I couldn't agree more. Thank you.