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.
Food for thought: "I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disappearing in one way or another - into their jobs, their daily routines, their delusions about ...
Something inspirational: “Anyone can learn to fight. Hardly anyone learns to think.” TAMSYN MUIR, Gideon the Ninth Muir's quote reminds us that fighting is not just about physical strength; it can mean arguing, resisting ...
Food for thought: “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you.” OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, Parable of the Sower This quote reminds us that everything we do has an impact, and every experience changes ...
Freedom isn't exactly something I know a lot about, but it would be very nice to find out. I have spent most of my life feeling like a prisoner,
in my own mind and trapped by the expectations of others. I was forced as a child to be such a people pleaser that I felt like I didn't have any other choice, even though I very obviously did.
I'm pretty sure that they would label that as a case of Stockholm syndrome on top of having a mother who was dealing with Munchausens syndrome, but never would have known.
Both my parents are finally gone, so I should be able to let a lot of that go; but it isn't always as easy as people seem to think.
Part of me knows that I can actually be free, but it's the part that doesn't seem capable of believing in it that I need to work on defeating.
Thanks Randy. Yes, it sounds as though your conscious has already worked that out, but your subconscious (the part of the brain that stores your experiences) isn't corresponding or playing ball!
I know that when I dealt with a lot of my issues, I know that my subconscious thinking began to see and understand more of my experiences and was able to let some of those go.
My blogs over the 8 year period that I have been writing journals, document my experiences that I wasn't always aware of growing up; so I am now aware.
I believe this quote is true and believe we can be emotionally free. But it's important for us to understand our own journey and that needs to happen before we can totally be free.
This makes me wonder what freedom really is. Is it dreams and images that mean absolutely nothing or is it travel to a part of our minds for sanctuary?
I bet we've all bathed in the idea of freedom, repeating it slowly and imagining it vividly.
Thanks Tim. Yes, I believe freedom is being able to think about thoughts in a way that encourages us to live our lives in our own way.
Sadly, too many of us are conditioned to live a certain life and follow a certain path. Freedom is having the ability to make choices and decisions without recourse to ourselves when they don't meet our family's or others' approval.
Freedom allows for free-thought, and for spiritual growth too. When it comes to spiritual growth, I believe that is where we are most free.
You're right freedom is a choice like happiness is, but not everyone understands how to tap into their choice. I got the stage where I'd had enough, literally.
I knew what I'd been made to work through wasn't about me and decided that enough was enough. As I began to unravel and understand my past, it made it easier to walk away.
As you say, freedom is a choice, it's a state of mind; but we must continue to understand and work on being free. It's easy to revert back.
It's a matter of moving and continuing to move forward.
Freedom isn't exactly something I know a lot about, but it would be very nice to find out. I have spent most of my life feeling like a prisoner,
in my own mind and trapped by the expectations of others. I was forced as a child to be such a people pleaser that I felt like I didn't have any other choice, even though I very obviously did.
I'm pretty sure that they would label that as a case of Stockholm syndrome on top of having a mother who was dealing with Munchausens syndrome, but never would have known.
Both my parents are finally gone, so I should be able to let a lot of that go; but it isn't always as easy as people seem to think.
Part of me knows that I can actually be free, but it's the part that doesn't seem capable of believing in it that I need to work on defeating.
Thanks Randy. Yes, it sounds as though your conscious has already worked that out, but your subconscious (the part of the brain that stores your experiences) isn't corresponding or playing ball!
I know that when I dealt with a lot of my issues, I know that my subconscious thinking began to see and understand more of my experiences and was able to let some of those go.
My blogs over the 8 year period that I have been writing journals, document my experiences that I wasn't always aware of growing up; so I am now aware.
I believe this quote is true and believe we can be emotionally free. But it's important for us to understand our own journey and that needs to happen before we can totally be free.
This makes me wonder what freedom really is. Is it dreams and images that mean absolutely nothing or is it travel to a part of our minds for sanctuary?
I bet we've all bathed in the idea of freedom, repeating it slowly and imagining it vividly.
Thanks Tim. Yes, I believe freedom is being able to think about thoughts in a way that encourages us to live our lives in our own way.
Sadly, too many of us are conditioned to live a certain life and follow a certain path. Freedom is having the ability to make choices and decisions without recourse to ourselves when they don't meet our family's or others' approval.
Freedom allows for free-thought, and for spiritual growth too. When it comes to spiritual growth, I believe that is where we are most free.
If you believe that freedom means different things and not just the physical, freedom like happiness, becomes our choice.
The moment one chooses to be free and makes the choice to be free, you are always free to choose your thoughts.
You're right freedom is a choice like happiness is, but not everyone understands how to tap into their choice. I got the stage where I'd had enough, literally.
I knew what I'd been made to work through wasn't about me and decided that enough was enough. As I began to unravel and understand my past, it made it easier to walk away.
As you say, freedom is a choice, it's a state of mind; but we must continue to understand and work on being free. It's easy to revert back.
It's a matter of moving and continuing to move forward.