Open-up to how you feel. Growing up, I didn’t get the happy ever life. I was stressed, continually having to deal with something physically, mentally and emotionally I didn’t know I had. I felt like I was an outsider, I lived in my head.

It's good to talk 

With any pre-existing condition life is difficult, but whatever your experiences; it is important to talk about how you feel. It is important to talk, so that you can begin to feel better about what you deal with around your mental and emotional health. There wasn't a day go by that I didn't stop trying.

Talking is an important element of any relationship, but even more so with yourself. It is important for your mental health, important for each of us to stay inclusive, so that we can live our lives presently.

The pandemic is the least time you might decide to pick up a mental health book, but it is exactly the right time to pick up a mental health book.

Making a change

We all need a helping hand. Through Covid-19, the world has changed and we have changed with it. To keep pace, we have got to want to change, to change how we feel about things, about life. The old life is gone, it is important to adapt.

In Covid-19 it is time to make mental health a priority. I don't see any other way to make our mental health better.

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.

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2 comments on “Open up to how you feel”

  1. My feelings were always irrelevant in the world I grew up in. My life was taken up with being my mother's caretaker, which meant I wasn't allowed to have any of my own feelings.

    It's a foreign concept to me that it's okay for me to be in touch with my own feelings; I am slowly getting used to the idea. I'm also sure that's why I get highly annoyed when someone tries to tell me how I should feel about things, especially around Christmas time.

    I'll have to make sure I order your second book once the holidays are over.

    1. Thank you so much Randy, although it will have to be 'The Book Depository' since 'Spirituality, Healing and Me' is not being published in the States now, but it will be out on the 1st May 2022.

      When you've been taking instruction your whole life, it's not surprising you don't know what to feel. Control is a terrible thing. That said, change can happen and you can start to explore how you feel. You know what happened to you over the years.

      I read an article by a celebrity recently, who watched her mother sit in victim-hood as a child and as the adult she vowed never to follow in her footsteps.

      The first step for anyone is to recognise they have feelings and learning to understand what they are, then own them.

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