A Spiritual and Healing Journey

Spirituality and healing around grief is inevitably an individual and personal journey, with no two people sharing the same experiences. While my interest in spirituality started in childhood, my spiritual and healing journey started in earnest some 13+ years ago when I set up my website, The CP Diary, following my Cerebral Palsy diagnosis, aged 46.

Personal reflections capture the essence of spirituality and healing. It also highlights the personal nature of spirituality and its potential to accommodate healing on multiple levels—including the physical, emotional and spiritual level. It involves connecting with our inner-selves and being in tune with the world around us.

GRIEF AND MINDFULNESS

I use and embrace mindfulness. I continue to use mindfulness as a tool through my own grieving and the loss of my twin. It helps me to stay focused in the present, while allowing me to work on practical tools for navigating my way through grief and my healing journey. Spirituality also provides a profound sense of purpose and connection, allowing for empathy and compassion through the other end of the grieving process.

The emphasis needs to be on patience, tolerance, understanding and personal growth, which serve to underscore the ongoing nature of the spiritual and healing journey, reminding us that it is a process marked by introspection. It is important to be in tune with how you feel; your thoughts and feelings throughout the grieving process.

SPIRITUALITY: AN INSIGHTFUL PERSPECTIVE

Spirituality is an excellent tool to help navigate you through the grieving process. It offers a compassionate and insightful perspective on the connection between physical and mental health, while emphasising the importance of self-care and personal growth through your spiritual and healing journey.

Read more by Ilana at www.thecpdiary.com

Read Ilana elsewhere on Open to Hope: https://www.opentohope.com/losing-a-loved-one-makes-you-grow-up/

Ilana Estelle

Ilana was born with a disability she didn’t know she had until the age of 46, when something her mum said caused her to look further into her disability and sight of her medical notes revealed that she had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of 2. That discovery turned out to be a unique and life-changing experience that has forced Ilana to stand back and look at her life’s experiences differently. On receipt of her diagnosis, Ilana set up her website, The CP Diary and uses her experiences to explore her emotional and physical health, with an inspiring message advocating positivity, resilience and change. Ilana likes to spend her days writing and blogging about anything that contributes to her health and wellbeing. She is an animal advocate and is passionate about environmental issues. When she is not writing or tending to her blog, Ilana enjoys days out exploring the Yorkshire countryside. Ilana lives with her husband in Yorkshire. Her grown up son and daughter both live in London.