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 ...
Thanks Maria. Yes I agree... and not to take action will create even more doubt in our minds, particularly if we're already doubting ourselves, or dealing with something we're already not sure about.
whether we have doubt or not and we come to take action, that in itself should remove doubt. I agree with this quote.
Self doubt was instilled in me at a very early age from a mother who seemed to want to keep me from having my own life.
It makes you kind of neurotic when you have someone harping on you and trying to make you feel bad for wanting to do your own thing. Doubt was the thing that kept me from taking action for most of my life, since I never knew what her reaction would be.
She went so far out of her way to break my spirit and she did a fantastic job. It has taken 20+ years of therapy to finally make the breakthrough that it is actually okay for me to have my own life!
Action is the hardest thing I have to deal with at times considering how much doubt I always have in the back of my mind. It's like having so many negative tapes playing in the background of the reasons I shouldn't be doing things that I want to do. It also explains why I have been in so many controlling relationships!
'You live what you know' is the expression that comes to mind. I may have to take a lot of action to change things, which I know won't be very pleasant.
I'm just very upset that I have wasted so much of my life filled with doubt when all it would have taken was some action on my part!
In my formative years (different symptoms) I was never encouraged to move and experience anything of life. When I tried there was always an excuse as to why I couldn't, so in the end I gave up asking.
That said, our past is our past, good or bad. Yes we both grew up around doubt but I'm not sure your life would have been any different either, but we must move on, otherwise our past will only serve to break our spirit more.
I'm not completely happy with how my life turned out, because I know that without the neglect and encouragement I would have gone on to do so much more, but it's important we put what we've come to deal with over the years behind us, so that we remove any doubt from the equation as to where the guilt really lies.
I'm responsible for my own guilt, but I'm not taking responsibility for another person's guilt, neither should you. Perhaps it's time to remove any form of doubt and take action to put your past behind you.
You'll have your bad days of course, but the more you move forward and take doubt out of the equation the less bad days you'll have.
True! We will not know what we are able to, or maybe have the opportunity to discover something new if we don't don't take action.
I struggle with this in my moments of weakness, when self-doubt takes hold of me.
Thanks Maria. Yes I agree... and not to take action will create even more doubt in our minds, particularly if we're already doubting ourselves, or dealing with something we're already not sure about.
whether we have doubt or not and we come to take action, that in itself should remove doubt. I agree with this quote.
Self doubt was instilled in me at a very early age from a mother who seemed to want to keep me from having my own life.
It makes you kind of neurotic when you have someone harping on you and trying to make you feel bad for wanting to do your own thing. Doubt was the thing that kept me from taking action for most of my life, since I never knew what her reaction would be.
She went so far out of her way to break my spirit and she did a fantastic job. It has taken 20+ years of therapy to finally make the breakthrough that it is actually okay for me to have my own life!
Action is the hardest thing I have to deal with at times considering how much doubt I always have in the back of my mind. It's like having so many negative tapes playing in the background of the reasons I shouldn't be doing things that I want to do. It also explains why I have been in so many controlling relationships!
'You live what you know' is the expression that comes to mind. I may have to take a lot of action to change things, which I know won't be very pleasant.
I'm just very upset that I have wasted so much of my life filled with doubt when all it would have taken was some action on my part!
Given my own history Randy, I'm where you are.
In my formative years (different symptoms) I was never encouraged to move and experience anything of life. When I tried there was always an excuse as to why I couldn't, so in the end I gave up asking.
That said, our past is our past, good or bad. Yes we both grew up around doubt but I'm not sure your life would have been any different either, but we must move on, otherwise our past will only serve to break our spirit more.
I'm not completely happy with how my life turned out, because I know that without the neglect and encouragement I would have gone on to do so much more, but it's important we put what we've come to deal with over the years behind us, so that we remove any doubt from the equation as to where the guilt really lies.
I'm responsible for my own guilt, but I'm not taking responsibility for another person's guilt, neither should you. Perhaps it's time to remove any form of doubt and take action to put your past behind you.
You'll have your bad days of course, but the more you move forward and take doubt out of the equation the less bad days you'll have.