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.
The things we see but fail to notice Food for thought: "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Food for thought: "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." SOCRATES Socrates reminds us that true wisdom begins with understanding that we can't know everything. Every day is an opportunity ...
Food for thought: "We do not realize what we have on Earth until we leave it." JIM LOVELL Jim Lovell’s words remind us not to take life, our planet, or what we have for granted. As is sometimes the case, it can ...
Thanks, yes we're lured into a self-sense of security, thinking we can't lose when in reality we can lose and nothing is secured.
One success story doesn't mean we will always be successful. We have to work at the life thing and hope that will bring us success, but we can't assume or take anything for granted and sadly we do.
I think you're right. We can learn a lot from failing, we learn very little from success. Our failings are very much lessons in disguise if as you say, we allow ourselves to learn.
Yes, there are those people who seem to be blessed and win at everything without hardly trying. In my world I've always had to fight to accomplish anything, since I didn't grow up in a world with all the advantages that so many others take for granted.
Most of what I learned had to be done the hard way, since we didn't have parents who really taught us how to do much of anything other than just to survive and exist. The message I eventually got was that nothing I could ever do would make them happy so it was easier to just fail, rather than ever trying to take the chances that most kids do.
For me it was easier to just get used to failing, so the concept of success and happiness is foreign to me. I'm now trying to defeat a lifetime of failure to try to at least succeed in being happy, or at least comfortable in my own skin.
Comfortable in my own skin works for me too Randy. Yes, sadly success doesn't always teach as about what it means not to succeed; particularly if we always think we are going to succeed.
There are those who continually succeed, whatever they turn their hand to and you're right; but I believe that as long as we follow the universal path and succeed with gracefulness, be tolerant of others and live with compassion, it's okay.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. If we're happy in ourselves, we'd be happy no matter whether we succeeded or not. I just think it's important to understand what it means to succeed in the same way we understand what it means not to.
That way, we'd learn about succeeding and losing together; not just want it means to succeed. So important. We must know what it feels like to experience both.
Oh yes this is so indeed true! Having said that, after 'success' has been achieved, it develops smart people into thinking they're superior to the rest of the world.
Even when the success isn't truly theirs, to become so big headed.
Thanks Bonnie. Your first paragraph absolutely sums up your response beautifully.
I'm not sure why being successful produces a title where those who continually succeed, think they're superior, but in the eyes of the universe they're not. They're just the same as the rest of us.
I believe that the more grounded we are, the more humble and grounded we shall stay throughout our lifetime.
Our upbringing very much determines our attitude towards success and how we deal with success.
Success gives a feeling of distinction, but it can leave you poor if you let reality slip away from you. Which is why I think success must be accurately defined before it becomes vulgar; we've seen many examples of that.
It's like tasting something sweet, then suddenly you're seduced by poison.
Indeed. And in doing so shows those people they are not so smart after all, whereas failure teaches us, if we allow ourselves to learn its lessons.
Thanks, yes we're lured into a self-sense of security, thinking we can't lose when in reality we can lose and nothing is secured.
One success story doesn't mean we will always be successful. We have to work at the life thing and hope that will bring us success, but we can't assume or take anything for granted and sadly we do.
I think you're right. We can learn a lot from failing, we learn very little from success. Our failings are very much lessons in disguise if as you say, we allow ourselves to learn.
Yes, there are those people who seem to be blessed and win at everything without hardly trying. In my world I've always had to fight to accomplish anything, since I didn't grow up in a world with all the advantages that so many others take for granted.
Most of what I learned had to be done the hard way, since we didn't have parents who really taught us how to do much of anything other than just to survive and exist. The message I eventually got was that nothing I could ever do would make them happy so it was easier to just fail, rather than ever trying to take the chances that most kids do.
For me it was easier to just get used to failing, so the concept of success and happiness is foreign to me. I'm now trying to defeat a lifetime of failure to try to at least succeed in being happy, or at least comfortable in my own skin.
Comfortable in my own skin works for me too Randy. Yes, sadly success doesn't always teach as about what it means not to succeed; particularly if we always think we are going to succeed.
There are those who continually succeed, whatever they turn their hand to and you're right; but I believe that as long as we follow the universal path and succeed with gracefulness, be tolerant of others and live with compassion, it's okay.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. If we're happy in ourselves, we'd be happy no matter whether we succeeded or not. I just think it's important to understand what it means to succeed in the same way we understand what it means not to.
That way, we'd learn about succeeding and losing together; not just want it means to succeed. So important. We must know what it feels like to experience both.
Oh yes this is so indeed true! Having said that, after 'success' has been achieved, it develops smart people into thinking they're superior to the rest of the world.
Even when the success isn't truly theirs, to become so big headed.
Thanks Bonnie. Your first paragraph absolutely sums up your response beautifully.
I'm not sure why being successful produces a title where those who continually succeed, think they're superior, but in the eyes of the universe they're not. They're just the same as the rest of us.
I believe that the more grounded we are, the more humble and grounded we shall stay throughout our lifetime.
Our upbringing very much determines our attitude towards success and how we deal with success.
Success gives a feeling of distinction, but it can leave you poor if you let reality slip away from you. Which is why I think success must be accurately defined before it becomes vulgar; we've seen many examples of that.
It's like tasting something sweet, then suddenly you're seduced by poison.
As you say Tim, the key is reality. I think we tend to be led into a false sense of security around success.
Like we've had it, we're on to a winner. We will have success again. Life's not like that. The rug can be pulled when we least expect it.
I love your analogy in your last paragraph Tim. Well said. Absolutely.