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 ...
Yes, it comes down the matter of interpretation, like the Bible. So many people can read it but it's not always going to have the same meaning for each of us.
Far too often we twist the meaning of books to suit our own needs, which is the source of most of the troubles in the world.
I should know since I grew up being raised as what I like to call a force-fed Baptist. where they were always trying to cram their beliefs down my throat, which didn't work very well.
I have read probably a good 100 or so self-help books but they haven't done a lot of good, since I wasn't often able to put the information into action.
I was always great at reading, but being able to fully comprehend what the book was trying to tell me is a whole different story.
Thanks Randy. Yes, where you say, 'far too often we twist the meaning of books to suit our own needs.' I believe you're right.
But I'm not sure how much of it is wishful thinking, or that we're simply not prepared to hear the truth and therefore deal with the truth.
Being able to comprehend what we're reading can be difficult. But books are also open to interpretation and our experiences are often responsible for that.
Two people will never see things in the same way, even in the same family.
It's all up to the person's imagination. That's the beauty of reading. It can take you away into another world and also give you knowledge on subjects.
Thanks Maria. Yes, 'The Alchemist' is one of those books that teaches us about life and appeals to so many people.
Although I am not the best reader, primarily because I lose concentration fairly quickly, I do think we need to think more about what we read and take the knowledge we acquired, away from us.
Books including fictional and biography can make a difference and can change our own outlook if we let them. As you say Maria, books give us knowledge and knowledge empowers us, and that creates change.
Reading comprehension is difficult when our eyes are focused on other things, like our political and social beliefs. Unfortunately, that's the way people read the world.
Perhaps that's why we walk around with camera phones these days.
Thanks Tim. You've brought up a good point when you say, 'our eyes are focused on other things.'
With so much uncertainty, unease and unrest going on we bury our heads in the sand and don't read, but still keep a watchful eye, hence your reference to us walking around with camera phones.
But that can't and won't work long term. Things will continue to happen and go on around us whether we choose to acknowledge those things or not.
We must continue to be proactive, to understand what is going on around us so that we're prepared to deal with what life throws back at us.
Yes, it comes down the matter of interpretation, like the Bible. So many people can read it but it's not always going to have the same meaning for each of us.
Far too often we twist the meaning of books to suit our own needs, which is the source of most of the troubles in the world.
I should know since I grew up being raised as what I like to call a force-fed Baptist. where they were always trying to cram their beliefs down my throat, which didn't work very well.
I have read probably a good 100 or so self-help books but they haven't done a lot of good, since I wasn't often able to put the information into action.
I was always great at reading, but being able to fully comprehend what the book was trying to tell me is a whole different story.
Thanks Randy. Yes, where you say, 'far too often we twist the meaning of books to suit our own needs.' I believe you're right.
But I'm not sure how much of it is wishful thinking, or that we're simply not prepared to hear the truth and therefore deal with the truth.
Being able to comprehend what we're reading can be difficult. But books are also open to interpretation and our experiences are often responsible for that.
Two people will never see things in the same way, even in the same family.
It's all up to the person's imagination. That's the beauty of reading. It can take you away into another world and also give you knowledge on subjects.
Right now I'm reading The Alchemist.
Thanks Maria. Yes, 'The Alchemist' is one of those books that teaches us about life and appeals to so many people.
Although I am not the best reader, primarily because I lose concentration fairly quickly, I do think we need to think more about what we read and take the knowledge we acquired, away from us.
Books including fictional and biography can make a difference and can change our own outlook if we let them. As you say Maria, books give us knowledge and knowledge empowers us, and that creates change.
I guess we all take out of a book what we want.
I have tried a couple of Paulo Coelho's novels and just couldn't get into them at all.
This is so true of life, and conversations also.
We take what we want and ignore the rest, but perhaps that's more to do with where we are emotionally.
Reading comprehension is difficult when our eyes are focused on other things, like our political and social beliefs. Unfortunately, that's the way people read the world.
Perhaps that's why we walk around with camera phones these days.
Thanks Tim. You've brought up a good point when you say, 'our eyes are focused on other things.'
With so much uncertainty, unease and unrest going on we bury our heads in the sand and don't read, but still keep a watchful eye, hence your reference to us walking around with camera phones.
But that can't and won't work long term. Things will continue to happen and go on around us whether we choose to acknowledge those things or not.
We must continue to be proactive, to understand what is going on around us so that we're prepared to deal with what life throws back at us.