After a traumatic series of events that included the hospitalisation of her mother and the discovery of potentially cancerous nodules on her own liver, TLR Family member Wafeya Kà discovered a brand new way of living. She takes us through her story so far, her journey towards a healthy life, and shares what she’s learned about the secrets of ancestral health.
Health. It’s something we often take for granted. Including me. It wasn’t until I faced some serious challenges that I truly understood how precious it is.
My journey towards a healthy life has been a long and winding one, filled with ups and downs, but it has ultimately led me to where I am today.
I grew up in Tunisia where health was not a priority. At the age of 12, I started smoking, drank heavily, and ate meat every day. I was far from being on a path towards a healthy life. However, life has a way of guiding us towards our true path, even if we resist it at first.
Wafeya talking about her story with TLR members at a recent TGIF event. Pic: Agnes des Bois
A Learning: Life is Precious
In 2019, when I was 33 years old, I experienced a series of challenges that would ultimately change the course of my life. One of the most significant challenges was my mother’s discovery of a brain tumour. She opted to have surgery on it, and it unfortunately did not go well. She entered into a coma and the doctors said they didn’t know if she would wake up or not.
During that time, I was in the hospital with her in the intensive care unit, surrounded by people who were dying. It was an extremely emotional time. After a few days, my mother thankfully woke up, but she had become paraplegic and epileptic, something she had feared. I spent a long time with her then, supporting her through this process.
It was during this time that I realised not only how lucky I was to be healthy, but how much I had taken my health, and my life, for granted. I started to understand how precious life, and health, truly were.
A few snapshots from Wafeya’s time in Sri Lanka
Because of this, I later decided to go travelling for a while. I ended up in Sri Lanka, where I had a lot of adventures and felt truly alive.
However, the day before I returned to Montreal, I started experiencing a sharp pain in my left side, like a knife. The next day, I went to see a doctor and had an echography that revealed something on my liver.
A Health Scare
I was in shock and felt like I was going to die. The doctor suggested I cancel all my plans and come to the hospital for further scans. It turned out that I had two nodules on my liver, and I had to see a cancer specialist. Next, I spent ten days waiting for this appointment, during which I became a different person, thinking about the possibility of cancer, losing my hair, losing my life.
I decided not to go to the specialist doctor without considering other options first, and so I sought out alternative treatments.
I stumbled upon Irene Grosjean. Irene is a renowned 93-year-old naturopath who believed practising fasting, and feeding your body correctly, could cure any disease. It was a message that resonated with me deeply. For the first time, I felt a calling.
At the time, however, I was focused on launching my marketing company, and my health was far from my mind. It wasn’t until I started spending sleepless nights watching Irene’s videos that I realised the potential of natural health. It was a world that was completely new to me, and I felt like I had stumbled upon a treasure trove of knowledge that society and modern medicine had kept hidden from me.
Then came the diagnosis. The third doctor I visited told me I had three nodules. While he assured me that it wasn’t cancerous and I could come back for a scan in six months, I knew deep down that my body was trying to tell me something. Instead of ignoring it, I decided to take action.
I began eating raw food and fasting, and the results were nothing short of astounding. My body started to heal itself. This was the path I was meant to follow. It was a feeling of peace that I had never experienced before.
It’s important to note that I’m not saying that this is the only way to achieve good health. It’s my truth, and it’s something that I have personally experimented with. A lot. With this in mind, I want to also share with you some of the things I’ve learned since then.
Understanding Illness
When you experience illness, it’s important to understand that it’s not something inherently bad, but rather a message from your body indicating that something is wrong. Your body is actively trying to eliminate and remove the source of the problem, and interfering with this process can prevent healing and potentially lead to chronic illness.
It’s crucial to allow the healing process to take its course and not simply treat the symptoms. A helpful metaphor is to think of your body like a car – when you see an alarm on your dashboard, you don’t just silence the alarm, you identify and fix the underlying issue. Similarly, it’s essential to address the root cause of illness and support the body’s natural healing processes.
Ancestral Health: The basics
The pillars of ancestral health are: breathing; alimentation; rest; and elimination.
Improving these areas might sound simple, but a lot of people still ignore them.
Breathing: Take deep, conscious breaths many times throughout the day. Use your breath to ground yourself, to keep calm and stop yourself from getting too stressed.
Alimentation: The food that you eat. Eating raw food has been a significant change in my life that I cannot imagine going back on. I’ve tried various diets, from eating meat, rice, pasta, to becoming vegetarian, then vegan, and eventually transitioning to a raw vegan diet. Out of all the diets I’ve tried, raw food has been the most beneficial for me. Why? Raw food provides your body with vitality and essential nutrients that can be lost during the cooking process.
For instance, enzymes are crucial for your body, but they are destroyed at temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Additionally, certain vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C are sensitive to heat and can be lost at temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees Celsius. Even Vitamin D can be lost at temperatures above 90 degrees Celsius. By consuming raw food, you are ensuring that your body retains all the nutrition it requires to function at its best.
Elimination: Ask yourself – how is my body eliminating waste? Is everything functioning optimally? If it’s not, you can help it by doing a purge. This is something you should do carefully, and take further advice from someone who knows what they are doing.
Rest: Your body needs rest in order to heal. You need to listen to your body, and rest when it tells you to. Fasting is a method I use to help my body rest from having to digest food all the time.
Final Thoughts on My Journey to a Healthy Life
Wafeya pictured with the TLR Family members who attended her TGIF event recently. Pic: Agnes des Bois
Looking back, I realise now that challenges are an essential part of life – they often guide us towards our true path. If we embrace them and learn from them, we can end up in a good place. My journey towards a healthy life has been a long one, but it has ultimately led me to a place where I feel alive and fulfilled, and I am grateful for every step along the way.
Now, I live a happier, healthier life, and I have also changed my career entirely. I created my own project, Flōvida, which is a combination between movement and ancestral health. I now do individual coaching, organise retreats, and I’m also building an academy online to share all this knowledge of ancestral health. If any of this has struck a chord with you today, I would very much encourage you to join me!
About Wafeya
Wafeya Kà, who has been a TLR Family member since January 2021, is a body therapy facilitator and ancestral health initiator.
She practises raw veganism and has been interested in ancestral health methods for several years.
Wafeya is trained in coaching, naturopathy, and body therapy. Find out more at www.flovida.life/en/.
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