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 ...
I'm not exactly sure of who Topaz is, but it would be nice if my life was a story worth talking about.
I'm very well aware that I haven't been living up to my full potential and blaming it on everyone else but myself.
It has been a never-ending battle over the years between the part of myself that really wants to help people and the other part that really doesn't want to, because of how I have always been treated.
The reality is that I allowed myself to be treated badly, so now I have to stand up and fight for myself and all the people that I can help.
I know that my circumstances haven't gone well so far, but I'm praying that I will figure out a way to change my circumstances very soon.
I like these words. Living a story you want to tell means living to the best of your abilities.
Life doesn't always turn out the way we wish it would. But as long as we are truthful with ourselves and others, its a good start.
I've always been a person who struggled on making decisions. Always worried that I was going to make a mistake. But who are we answering to? If who we really have to answer to is our own conscience.
We must have faith in our ability to choose. Otherwise you can get stuck in your life goals and always wonder what could have been.
I found out that my indecisiveness was part of a disability. I was doing the best I could and actually my life turned out good.
So as long as we're happy with how things turn out and we haven't compromised our morals its OK to just be us.
It's time to accept things for what they are, okay?
Thanks Maria. Yes, it certainly does and I love your comment, 'so as long as we’re happy with how things turn out and we haven’t compromised our morals its OK to just be us.'
It is absolutely okay to just be us. It's wrong for any of us to compromise our morals. I think this is part of the problem we have.
We tend to conform to how others are just to fit in, rather than go with how we are and let others fit into our lives.
As a general rule we don't. I think I'm probably unique in that way. I agree with you though that the majority of us will wish we'd lived a different life.
It's a human failing, I think we tend to hone in on that more than anything. I also think that comes in on the back of seeing other people live their lives, where we feel we haven't really lived ours in the true sense.
For example, people who have travelled, seen more of the world. Anything and everything that reminds us of the things we've not done.
But things will change with each generation. I think it's important we understand our lives, as well as our culture and parentage.
As my story and experiences show, opportunities just aren't there. That's something else we must learn to reconcile. I agree with Maria also.
I'm not exactly sure of who Topaz is, but it would be nice if my life was a story worth talking about.
I'm very well aware that I haven't been living up to my full potential and blaming it on everyone else but myself.
It has been a never-ending battle over the years between the part of myself that really wants to help people and the other part that really doesn't want to, because of how I have always been treated.
The reality is that I allowed myself to be treated badly, so now I have to stand up and fight for myself and all the people that I can help.
I know that my circumstances haven't gone well so far, but I'm praying that I will figure out a way to change my circumstances very soon.
Thanks Randy. Well I for one think your life is very much worth talking about. Life isn't just about the success stories.
For the record you didn't allow people to treat you badly, you were brought up in a dysfunctional family, where your parents controlled you.
Our lives were similar in that way, but different. I know I couldn't have done anything different, neither could you.
I like these words. Living a story you want to tell means living to the best of your abilities.
Life doesn't always turn out the way we wish it would. But as long as we are truthful with ourselves and others, its a good start.
I've always been a person who struggled on making decisions. Always worried that I was going to make a mistake. But who are we answering to? If who we really have to answer to is our own conscience.
We must have faith in our ability to choose. Otherwise you can get stuck in your life goals and always wonder what could have been.
I found out that my indecisiveness was part of a disability. I was doing the best I could and actually my life turned out good.
So as long as we're happy with how things turn out and we haven't compromised our morals its OK to just be us.
It's time to accept things for what they are, okay?
Thanks Maria. Yes, it certainly does and I love your comment, 'so as long as we’re happy with how things turn out and we haven’t compromised our morals its OK to just be us.'
It is absolutely okay to just be us. It's wrong for any of us to compromise our morals. I think this is part of the problem we have.
We tend to conform to how others are just to fit in, rather than go with how we are and let others fit into our lives.
I wonder how many of use live a life we want to tell? Don't we often wish we lived a different life?
I agree with Maria that we should bring acceptance into our lives as well as believe that we have choices.
As a general rule we don't. I think I'm probably unique in that way. I agree with you though that the majority of us will wish we'd lived a different life.
It's a human failing, I think we tend to hone in on that more than anything. I also think that comes in on the back of seeing other people live their lives, where we feel we haven't really lived ours in the true sense.
For example, people who have travelled, seen more of the world. Anything and everything that reminds us of the things we've not done.
But things will change with each generation. I think it's important we understand our lives, as well as our culture and parentage.
As my story and experiences show, opportunities just aren't there. That's something else we must learn to reconcile. I agree with Maria also.