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 ...
Boy, isn't that the truth! People have tried to give me advice for most of my life, but it didn't do any good when I wasn't listening.
There have been so many times when I wondered why people insisted on doing things their own way, even if it was destructive to their lives. It didn't quite dawn on me that I was so often doing the same things and wondering why my life seemed to suck so badly.
My friend has used a term called, 'repetition compulsion,' which seems very fitting to describe the patterns we get into, even when we should know better. It goes along with my expression of you live what you know, which really seems to fit.
Now if I could just learn how to stop making the same mistakes over and over again that would be fantastic.
Thanks Randy. Yes, we either stop listening because we're not sure how to listen or we switch off because it's too difficult to have to listen to what we're being told.
The more advice we listen to the more I believe we will profit. Particularly if the advice we get comes in from those who have our backs and want to help. It depends on who is handing out the advice. Unfortunately, not everyone will have our backs.
Very true. We can receive all the advice in the world, but unless we are wise enough to use that advice properly, we might as well not have received it the first place.
I grew up listening to my own advice so listening to others has not come easy for me.
Yes, it's important to be able to do both. Being too independent can make us too single minded, which isn't helpful for those on the receiving end, but it's important we take other people's advice. We cannot grow emotionally or spiritually without it.
Only having yourself as a guide probably means it's difficult for other people you're in contact with, but I believe that we can all still learn a different way to be; regardless of what's gone before.
First, I must decipher if there's an ulterior motive with any advice given to me, then I'll digest it and weigh it's sincerity; but nobody knows me better than I do.
Thanks Tim. Yes, life tends to show us through our numerous experiences which people are sincere and which people aren't.
As you say we usually have to decipher or pick up the signs. I also think the gut is good at picking up issues or circumstances, but the hard part is understanding how the gut works.
Boy, isn't that the truth! People have tried to give me advice for most of my life, but it didn't do any good when I wasn't listening.
There have been so many times when I wondered why people insisted on doing things their own way, even if it was destructive to their lives. It didn't quite dawn on me that I was so often doing the same things and wondering why my life seemed to suck so badly.
My friend has used a term called, 'repetition compulsion,' which seems very fitting to describe the patterns we get into, even when we should know better. It goes along with my expression of you live what you know, which really seems to fit.
Now if I could just learn how to stop making the same mistakes over and over again that would be fantastic.
Thanks Randy. Yes, we either stop listening because we're not sure how to listen or we switch off because it's too difficult to have to listen to what we're being told.
The more advice we listen to the more I believe we will profit. Particularly if the advice we get comes in from those who have our backs and want to help. It depends on who is handing out the advice. Unfortunately, not everyone will have our backs.
Very true. We can receive all the advice in the world, but unless we are wise enough to use that advice properly, we might as well not have received it the first place.
I grew up listening to my own advice so listening to others has not come easy for me.
Yes, it's important to be able to do both. Being too independent can make us too single minded, which isn't helpful for those on the receiving end, but it's important we take other people's advice. We cannot grow emotionally or spiritually without it.
Only having yourself as a guide probably means it's difficult for other people you're in contact with, but I believe that we can all still learn a different way to be; regardless of what's gone before.
First, I must decipher if there's an ulterior motive with any advice given to me, then I'll digest it and weigh it's sincerity; but nobody knows me better than I do.
Some people will bend over backwards to fool you.
Thanks Tim. Yes, life tends to show us through our numerous experiences which people are sincere and which people aren't.
As you say we usually have to decipher or pick up the signs. I also think the gut is good at picking up issues or circumstances, but the hard part is understanding how the gut works.