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.
Food for thought: "I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disappearing in one way or another - into their jobs, their daily routines, their delusions about ...
Something inspirational: “Anyone can learn to fight. Hardly anyone learns to think.” TAMSYN MUIR, Gideon the Ninth Muir's quote reminds us that fighting is not just about physical strength; it can mean arguing, resisting ...
Food for thought: “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you.” OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, Parable of the Sower This quote reminds us that everything we do has an impact, and every experience changes ...
We have the ability to have positive and negative thoughts and influences on ourselves and being stuck in a perpetually negative mindset and thought process can be a vicious circle; the difference being we are actually in control even then.
Yes this is absolutely true! We have the ability and should be in control of our thoughts, but I'm not sure how many of us really understand that we are.
It's not always easy to perceive that it's up to us to change our mindset. We see others and how they react to things, we just don't equate things for ourselves. Although that part isn't easy, it's also not easy knowing how to change a negative thought into a positive one.
I should know as a child I found it very difficult to turn things around.
Yes, I've been my own worst bully for most of my life which has continued to make my life such a "Living Hell!"
It hasn't made a lot of sense, considering I would have been very angry if someone else had treated me the way I have treated myself! I've beaten myself up for so many things that weren't my fault and had nothing to do with me.
My parents were very good at dumping things on us, which no child should have ever felt responsible for. It has taken a lot of time and years of therapy to even begin to let a lot of this baggage go. It still isn't easy, but much lighter when I'm not carrying other people's baggage along with my own!
Thanks Randy. I think you're absolutely right. When I was younger I did the same thing, beat myself up over things that we're clearly not my fault and although it took me a long time to understand I see things more clearly now.
I'm so pleased that you're seeing it for yourself and understand all too well why it's not easy to let it go. Once we learn to break the cycle though, it does become much easier.
I feel a lot better about things now and hope that in time you will too.
Thanks Tim. Yes absolutely. It's often difficult to shift a thought process once it's there, particularly if the thoughts we're dealing with are negative.
I guess this is true.
We have the ability to have positive and negative thoughts and influences on ourselves and being stuck in a perpetually negative mindset and thought process can be a vicious circle; the difference being we are actually in control even then.
Yes this is absolutely true! We have the ability and should be in control of our thoughts, but I'm not sure how many of us really understand that we are.
It's not always easy to perceive that it's up to us to change our mindset. We see others and how they react to things, we just don't equate things for ourselves. Although that part isn't easy, it's also not easy knowing how to change a negative thought into a positive one.
I should know as a child I found it very difficult to turn things around.
Yes, I've been my own worst bully for most of my life which has continued to make my life such a "Living Hell!"
It hasn't made a lot of sense, considering I would have been very angry if someone else had treated me the way I have treated myself! I've beaten myself up for so many things that weren't my fault and had nothing to do with me.
My parents were very good at dumping things on us, which no child should have ever felt responsible for. It has taken a lot of time and years of therapy to even begin to let a lot of this baggage go. It still isn't easy, but much lighter when I'm not carrying other people's baggage along with my own!
Thanks Randy. I think you're absolutely right. When I was younger I did the same thing, beat myself up over things that we're clearly not my fault and although it took me a long time to understand I see things more clearly now.
I'm so pleased that you're seeing it for yourself and understand all too well why it's not easy to let it go. Once we learn to break the cycle though, it does become much easier.
I feel a lot better about things now and hope that in time you will too.
This is so true! We can put ourselves down, condemn ourselves and talk ourselves out of things.
Thanks Lisa. I believe we do, until such a time we learn to let things go.
Nine times out of ten, the things we hold on to that we feel bad about and responsible for will have nothing to do with us. That is my experience.
I agree with this quote. Sometimes life can prove too strong for us and even our most subdued thoughts are like a runaway train at times.
Thanks Tim. Yes absolutely. It's often difficult to shift a thought process once it's there, particularly if the thoughts we're dealing with are negative.