Interview with Rositsa Erfurt - 1909

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Kaysie Butler, and welcome to healthy living around the world. I am on site at Centre for Health in Bulgaria today and with me is Rositsa Erfurt. Welcome to the program, Rossi. SPEAKER B Thank you. SPEAKER A It's lovely to have you with us. And it's lovely to be here too, visiting this place. Obviously this is a lifestyle center where we are at on location. And you have been working here, I understand for quite a bit of time, is that right? SPEAKER B Actually, the first time I came before this place was open, there was a short training, a summer training and this is the first time when I found out about lifetime medicine and all these different treatments. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER B And yeah, later I did the longer course and this is when they invited me to help also in the health center as part of the team. SPEAKER A Good. So what kind of things do you do in your work here? SPEAKER B Yeah, well, one of the main things is massages. Also helping with the hydrotherapies teas and juicy smoothies, all these kind of things. Sometimes a little bit with health lectures, exercise, anything that's needed and that they can help with. SPEAKER A Okay. So quite a variety of different sort of treatment things with the lifestyle guests. SPEAKER B Yeah. What I like about these places through the years, I really love the team. I worked with the doctor and other people from the team and they are really helping me develop in different areas I'm interested in. And yeah, I really like that. SPEAKER A That's good. You've got those chances to gain experience. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A So can you share with me maybe how you've come to appreciate lifestyle health principles? Obviously, working in a lifestyle center, you would naturally be picking up some things and applying them in your own life. Can you share with them? Me? SPEAKER B Some of that appreciation really came with application as soon as I started applying it, seeing the benefits for myself. This is when I started getting excited about it and also sharing with others what these principles, these simple things have done in my life. Like exercise whenever I have a lot of stress or many things to do or even more mental work. For example, this has been the best. The more intense exercise I do or like simple things like contrast showers. This is just so great for it's giving me energy to manage better with what's coming and just having experienced that I can encourage also others. Just as soon as I apply something and see how it works, then you. SPEAKER A Begin to really appreciate it, right? SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A Very good. So is there one of those principles that is your favorite that you actually really like? SPEAKER B It's the one that I'm really struggling with. I have to be in a really on a regular basis, I'm struggling, but when I have stressful moments is when I know I need it. It's like my emergency fuel. But what I really love is healthy cooking and wild edibles smoothies and all these things. I love experimenting with foods and both of my husband, we are both interested in this area, and we just love cooking, baking and trying different tastes and just seeing and also showing others how healthy food can be. Also very tasty. SPEAKER A Yes, that's always good to hear. SPEAKER B And there are just so many possibilities with these foods. SPEAKER A It's just endless. SPEAKER B Also, when you start adding the different wild edibles from the different areas, they have their own taste. And it's interesting to learn. We've been traveling a lot around Europe and learning about the different cultures, more specific way of eating. And it's been really interesting to learn and apply new things in our way of eating. SPEAKER A So you've said something about wild edibles. Is that greens? SPEAKER B Yeah, that we pick from the when we go to the forest or the field. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER B Like dandelion and sting nettles and some. SPEAKER A Other interesting so you just gather these from out in the forest and make smoothies or different cooking with it. SPEAKER B I love sometimes eating them just like that or in salads smoothies. We have even made, like, little candies from these. Wow. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER B In combination with dates or honey. And I just love the combination of greens and sweet or something like that, like in a smoothie. It's my energy drinks. SPEAKER A Interesting. SPEAKER B And what I appreciate about edibles, like, for example, in my country, it's quite expensive to buy greens from the store. And also the question comes, how do they grow these? Do they use some pesticides or you never know. So the best is, even if it's organic, there's still a question mark. Yes. SPEAKER A Right. SPEAKER B Even though in European Union there are certain regulations, you never know what on the way to the store. So for me, the safest thing is I just go in a clean place in the nature where I know that it's clean and it has had enough sun. And the more I've been learning, they're really so dense in nutrients and they are also free, which is so exciting. I love these, especially my steam nettle smoothie. It's like people who drink coffee in the morning. For me, this is my energy drink. It's just so tasty. SPEAKER A Do you put fruit with it? SPEAKER B Yeah, well, sometimes banana. Banana? That's my favorite combination. But any other fruit will work. And I like to make it more like creamy with less liquid, but also with any milk. Like, I love to make tahini milk. It's just the easiest because it's not so easy to find vegan milks in my country. So I just put a little bit of tahini with water, some fruits, and the steam nettles, and it's just the. SPEAKER A Perfect start of the day. Wow, that's amazing. That's so practical and simple, but obviously. SPEAKER B And also cheap, affordable. SPEAKER A That is a huge thing. A lot of people struggle with food and paying for food. There's also the struggle of finding that the healthy food is more expensive and then what to do, especially in a. SPEAKER B Country like Bulgaria, we're still a developing country. In the European Union, we entered later than other countries. And like in Germany, it's very affordable to be eating plant based. You can find everything sometimes even cheaper than eating a different type of diet. But in Bulgaria, people say, how can I eat this way? It's just I cannot afford it. But then you can show that you can get a lot of nutrients and even more just by these few simple tips like picking greens, just wild greens growing. SPEAKER A That's interesting. That's so good. Thank you so much for sharing those things. I'm sure that will be helpful for people. What I'm wondering now is how has your experience with living a healthy lifestyle influenced your spiritual life? SPEAKER B Well, I've really noticed whenever I am really keeping these things, drinking water and doing exercise and eating this way, my mind is so much more clear. And also being at the sun, breathing fresh air is the best medicine. And also prevention against disease. And whenever I was neglected for some reason, be it stress or too much to do and I would just forget or neglect it, I just see right away how my mind wouldn't be as clear when I sit and read my Bible or yeah, just any mental work actually is much harder. Takes more time to concentrate and understand things out. If I apply this principle during my day so it's really clear connection. SPEAKER A Okay, you've noticed quite clear kind of connection. It's helping you to be sharper, more spiritually as well as mentally. So that applies to everyday life in what you do too, doesn't it? Yeah. Very good. Now, so if you were to meet someone, obviously you meet people a lot here at the center, people who are wanting to change their lifestyle, what kind of things would you tell them? I guess that would be good strategies or principles to think about if they're wanting to make changes in their lifestyle. SPEAKER B Well, one thing would be to apply principles Cradily as they can make it possible in their schedule. Okay. Like sometimes I put too high goals and then I get too disappointed and discouraged early when if I put more possible goals and achieve them one by one. So it's like starting up with one thing, one principle, one simple thing. Like I'll drink two liters of water a day. When I create this habit and I make it without thinking too much, I can apply the next thing and then the next thing. In this way, I will create these habits one by one, and I will build up to this lifestyle. SPEAKER A Okay. And eventually it'll be more and more. SPEAKER B Successful with all the bits than having ups and downs, eventually giving up too early from something that's really worth it. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER B If we just have the persistency. SPEAKER A Yes. Okay. I think that's a very good way to think about it one step at a yeah, perfect. Yes. Yes. No, definitely. Because we have a saying, I don't know if it's over here in Bulgaria, but in Australia sometimes we have this saying and it says, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. In other words, if something seems so big, you just start small and you'll get there. So that's so encouraging for people. Yeah. Which is exactly what you're sharing. I think that's great. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us your experience. Thank you. And your little bits of advice. We have been recording here on site at Centre for Health Lifestyle retreat in Bulgaria. And we've been talking with Rositsa Erfurt and she's been sharing her experience. And thank you so much for listening to this program, healthy Living Around The World. I'm your host, Kaysie Butler. God bless. Till next time.