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 ...
Yes, so many people myself included, don't always see things as they are, but as the way I perceive them. My parents tried to put blinders on me and rose colored glasses when it was pretty obvious things weren't right.
They expected me to always see things the way they saw them, which were usually two different things. They eventually broke my spirit and brainwashed me to believe what they believed, but deep down there was still a part of me that wouldn't give up.
This led to me living my life making decisions based on what was best for everybody else, since that's what I was used to doing. My perception was definitely skewed by my parents.
Now I have to remember that it is okay for me to see things as they are and the way that I want to see them.
Thanks Tim. Yes, we see but we don't always acknowledge what we see.
As you rightly say though, things are often put into our heads that distort what we see and unless we question those things, we're looking through another person's eyes at what we see.
I agree it's not what we look at but what we see and also how we see it.
How we perceive things matters and as Randy says we can be programmed to see things a certain way. But I believe we can all change that and see things how we really ought to.
Yes, so many people myself included, don't always see things as they are, but as the way I perceive them. My parents tried to put blinders on me and rose colored glasses when it was pretty obvious things weren't right.
They expected me to always see things the way they saw them, which were usually two different things. They eventually broke my spirit and brainwashed me to believe what they believed, but deep down there was still a part of me that wouldn't give up.
This led to me living my life making decisions based on what was best for everybody else, since that's what I was used to doing. My perception was definitely skewed by my parents.
Now I have to remember that it is okay for me to see things as they are and the way that I want to see them.
Thanks Randy. Yes, it's never too late to change the way we see things so that we see what we want to see and not through the eyes of someone else.
Navigating life is difficult enough, I can vouch for that, but even more so through someone else's eyes.
Many of us are alienated from reality by things that were put in our heads to distort what we see; that condition is on display everyday.
It's like being blind with our eyes open, yet we can see.
Thanks Tim. Yes, we see but we don't always acknowledge what we see.
As you rightly say though, things are often put into our heads that distort what we see and unless we question those things, we're looking through another person's eyes at what we see.
I agree it's not what we look at but what we see and also how we see it.
How we perceive things matters and as Randy says we can be programmed to see things a certain way. But I believe we can all change that and see things how we really ought to.
I love this reminder, to see beyond the physical when we look in the mirror. A look of happiness and contentment in life is lovely.
Thanks Maria. Yes I do too. It's so important we see beyond the physical imperfections to what makes us.
Those are the things we must continue to work at. It stands to reason that the more content we are, the happier we will be.