#what the heck is Bulgarian Folk??

[jennyellie]

Lance has various soundtracks for his missions!! XD

I wonder what music he plays during other kinds of fights...

[platonic-prompts]

Creatures from Folklore: Slavic Region A-D

You ever need different creatures to base things off of, or just want some legends for a setting? Or heck, you ever just want to chuck a creature at someone and say you’ll figure it out? Well, do I have the posts for you. This one will focus on the Slavic Region but I’ll make more at a later date

Ala are considered to be demons of bad weather in several folklore, including that of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Their main purpose is to lead thunderclouds that produce hail towards fields, vineyards, or orchards to either destroy the crops or to loot and take them. They are very voracious and really like to eat children. Though one shouldn’t assume they limit their tastes to Earth, no. They sometimes try to devour the sun and moon which lead to eclipses and if they succeed it means the end of the world. People who encounter one may find their mental and physical health as well as their lives at risk. It is, however, possibly to gain her favor by approaching with trust and respect. These good relationships can be very beneficial since she (the ala) can make those with her favor wealthy and save their lives if they are in danger. Ala can take on many different forms: black wind, giant creatures with no distinct form, a monster either humanlike or snake like witha  huge mouth, a female dragon, a raven, various human and animal shapes. Ala can also possess people’s bodies. They live in the clouds or in lakes, springs, hidden remote places as well as caves, inhospitable mountains, forests, or even a huge tree. Usually hostile towards humans, they have powerful enemies capable of defeating them like the dragons.

Alkanost have an incredible voice, capable of making anyone who hears her song might forget everything in their search for paradise. A creature of good who resides in the garden of the gods or whatever version of heaven required, the alkanost has the head and bust of a woman and the rest of the body is that of a bird. Sometimes this creature lays eggs which assist in the changing of winter to spring. Basically she wouldn’t sit on her eggs just dump them into the Ocean-Sea and when they reached the bottom the weather would turn fair. Though i think that takes her out of the running for parenting awards.

Anchutka is a small malevolent spirit, residing most often in water or a swamp. Even without wings, it is capable of flight. One of its nicknames is the one without heels. This is a common theme to look for, as oftentimes evil forces have a limp. Though in some storied this spirit has lost their heels because they got bitten off by a wolf. This spirit is often a sidekick to a water spirit called Vodyanoy, and as such you should never say its name aloud since it will always show up.

Aspid, a type of dragon with a beak and other birdlike elements, resides primarily in the mountains, preferring solitude. When it invades a region, nearly always it caused universal devastation.

Baba Yaga: I’m pretty sure a lot of people know about Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in a hut with chicken legs and goes around in a mortar and pestle. She does carry a broom though, but she only uses it to sweep away her tracks.

Bannik is a spirit who rarely does any good for anyone. A mischievous spirit that has the appearance of an old man with long claws, he’s a spirit that inhabits the banya (steamhouse). Whenever people bathed in the banya, they would always leave on the third or fourth session to let Bannik have his privacy. They would leave him offerings of soup and regularly thank him. Bannik had the power to tell the future and if asked a question he would softly touch the askers back if it was a good future or flay it if it was a not so good future. Oh and Bannik, when angry, would claw off the skin of those who annoyed him. The banya was also the place of Russian childbirth, so there were measures taken to keep him from interfering. Part of the midwife’s job was to keep him away. And with good reason. Legends say that he ate or flayed children. So therefore the midwife would dip stones in the water and throw them in the corner to distract the steamhouse spirit.

Bauk hide in dark places and holes and abandoned houses. There they wait to grab, take away, and devour their victims. They have a clumsy gait and can be scared away by light and noise.

Babay, possibly the same thing as the bubak, isn’t often described so children will come up with what is most terrible for them. But despite this, Baby has been described as a black and crooked old man. When he is descibed he tends to have some traits such as muteness, lacking arms, or walking with a limp. He carries with him a bag and a cane. Baby lives in a forest or a swamp or a garden only to come out at night to walk the streets and scoop up the children he meets. He will walk close to windows and watched the children sleep. If they aren’t he’ll scare them with noises. Or sometimes he even hides under kids beds to take them away if they get up.

Błędnica is a forest demoness, who leads people astray before leaving her victims alone in the midst of the forest to die of starvation or be eaten by animals. She is usually described as a young and pretty girl. The only way to chase her away is to use strong spells or to sacrifice something at home or during your hunt.

Blud is a fairy in Slavic mythology. An evil deity who causes disorientation and leads a person around and around aimlessly.

Bukavac lives in lakes and pools, coming out at night to make a loud noise. A six-legged monster with gnarled horns, it would jump people and animals and strangle them.

Bubak is often represented as a scarecrow with a skeleton as frame, which is connected with darkness, it is a type of boogeymen used to scare children. The skeleton often is describes as wearing a heavy black coat where it hides the children it steals.

Cikavac, a mythical creature from Serbian mythology and it kinda feels like a basilisk but way weirder. This thing is a bird that has a long beak and a pelican-like sack. You can acquire one at the low low price of your sanity and clear face. For you see, in order to get one, you need to take an egg from a black hen which a woman now needs to carry under her armpit for 40 days ( is now a good time to note that chicken eggs hatch after 21 days or so) and one cannot confess, cut nails, wash their face, or pray. After that the cikavac would suck the honey from other people’s beehives and suck milk from other peoples cows and then bring it back to their owner. It would fulfill its owner’s wishes and it would allow its owner to understand the animal language.

Chort, a demon or a humanlike spirit in Slavic folk tradition.  They are not exactly evil characters. Yes they try to trick people into selling them their souls in exchange for useless gifts. Yes those people are carried off into hell. But they are sometimes tricked into doing such things as building castle walls in a day. Sometimes is depicted as trying to bring evil characters to hell. A small, hairy man with a tail, horns, and one or two hooves. But due to shapeshifting abilities, the chort is able to appear in nicer forms and tries to trick people while in them. Though these transformations aren’t and can’t be complete, so there’s a way to know if one is dealing with a chort whether it be by small horns in curly black hair or a hoofed leg hidden within high boots. Though they share similarities, a chort is not the devil.

Čuma, aka kuga, is a personification of the plague in Serbo-Croation myths. Typically appears as an old woman wearing white, though in some cases has been depicted as a young woman. Direct mention of them were avoided and were usually referred to by godmother or aunty. According to belief, they lived in a far away land where they came from to infect people. Due to their hatred of dirtiness, if they found a dirty household they would be eager to infect it. Due to this, if a plague appeared,every house and its occupants must be thoroughly cleansed. In addition one could make offerings to of food, clean water, basil, and a comb.

Domovoi are household protectors, generally seen as kind spirits though they would harass the family they protect if said family was rude or unclean. This usually took the form of pulling small pranks until the family corrected their behavior. While domovoi are shape shifters, most depictions show them as small, bearded masculine creatures which are reminiscent of hobgoblins. In order to complete his chores and to fulfill his duty of protecting the house, the domovoi would assume the shape of the head of the household, sometimes working in the yard while the real head of household was asleep. (Guess spirits don’t have to worry about identity theft charges). They were also capable of turning into animals, rarely taking the form of a dog or a cat. Another facet of the domovoi was their ability to act as an oracle. Predictions are as follows

Dancing and laughing= Good fortune would come

Rubbed the bristles of a comb= a wedding would happen soon

Extinguished candles= Misfortune would fall upon the household.

Dziwożona, a type of female swamp demon from Slavic mythology, sometimes called Mamuna or Bognika, who lived in the thickets near rivers and streams and lakes. Thought to appear with foul weather around trees and swamps, they are known for being malicious and dangerous, and usually were previously living humans. Several types of people would be at risk of turning into one after death, such as: midwives, old maids, unmarried mothers, pregnant women who die before giving birth, and abandoned children who were born out of wedlock. Some depictions include an ugly, old woman who had a hairy body, long straight hair, and I quote “breasts so huge she uses them to wash her clothes”. I don’t know what that actually means and I don’t want to find out. She also wore a red hat with a fern twig attached. In case she wasn’t weird enough, she’d watch women with their little children.  Just chilling around making the kid sick and making schemes to get the mother away from the kid when she’d replace the kid with one of her own, a foundling/changeling.

[autisticgaycastiel]

what's the audio in your "angels are monsters actually" thesis AMV?? also incredible vid holy heck!!! incredible showstopping amazing what's that lady gaga gif. that.

hi anon, thank u!!!! the song is called Pilentze Pee and it’s a Bulgarian folk song :)

[greggreaen]

Sesamoid Injury Recovery Update October 2017

Read and watch this Sesamoid Injury Recovery Update and get helpful Suggestions for Healing Your Foot, your fitness, and yourself. 

Did this video HELP you in healing??? Consider donating to the channel to support this work

Hurt Foot Fitness Program

Strong Body Program

Sesamoid playlist

Hurt Foot Workout Videos

  Hello Friends,

As you may already know, in July of 2016, I got a serious Sesamoid injury and now I am in the process of healing.

It’s been a long recovery journey and I get questions about my foot every day. I thought this would be a good time to send you an injury report update and how this has positively transformed my business, my fitness, and my life.

As a quick disclaimer: this is my own personal experience and is not medical advice. As always, check with your doctor before making any health changes. I hope this post serves you in having healthy feet and living an active life.

WATCH: Sesamoid Injury Update October 2017

If this post serves you in your healing journey, please consider donating to support this work.

Sesamoid What?!

Many people have never heard of the Sesamoid. I get confused faces more often than not,  “What the heck are sesamoids?” they ask. That is one of the most challenging parts about the Sesamoid injury, people just WONT GET IT. It takes forever to heal and the process is slow.  Since Sesamoid injures are so rare, I thought it would be helpful to explain it to you.

A sesamoid is a bone embedded in a tendon. In the normal foot, the sesamoids are two jelly bean-sized bones located in the ball of the foot, beneath the big toe joint. The sesamoids act as a pulley for tendons, their primary function is to help raise and lower the big toe with each step (allowing you to push off your foot when you walk, run, dance, or jump).  Sesamoid injuries can involve the bones, tendons, and/or surrounding tissue in the joint. They are common with activities requiring increased pressure on the ball of the foot, like running, basketball, football, golf, tennis and ballet. People with high arches or flexible feet are at risk for developing sesamoid problems. High-heeled shoes can also be a contributing factor.

Lucky for me, I did ALL of the above before my injury: running, dancing, jumping, and high heel shoe wearing with high arches and flexible feet. I was a prime candidate for a Sesamoid Injury. I broke the Sesamoid bone and am still healing the tendon.

The Long Story On How I got a Sesamoid Injury

I was a dancer and athlete my entire life. I majored in Dance at UCDavis and taught fitness throughout highschool and college. I was always moving with no serious injuries or anything that sidelined me for longer than a few days. I never had foot pain or foot problems. Then one day, at age 31, I noticed the ball of my foot hurt. I thought it was strange and decided to foam roll my foot on a golf ball to try and work out the kinks (because typically foam rolling the feet always helps!). The next day, I couldn’t walk. The ball of my foot felt hot, painful, and swollen. I had no idea what had happened, but I knew it wasn’t good. I went to the doctor and they told me I had a Sesamoid Injury. The first doctor I saw advised me to wait on getting an xray, they said I had only bruised my Sesamoid. I was put in a boot and told to lay off of my foot. Three months later, I had no progress, so I decided to get an xray. The xray showed an “oncult” fracture in my medial sesamoid.  I followed the same steps: lay off the Sesamoid as much as possible. Six months later, a physical therapist told me to start doing barefoot exercises to help with the pain. I followed this plan, thinking it was helping, but it was actually making it worse.

Sad but true, most doctors, fitness professionals, and physical therapists don’t know about Sesamoids, so they mis-treat patients and the cycle of pain continues. I did all the wrong things for the second half of 2016 thinking I was on the right track to healing. It wasn’t until 8 months into the injury I found a doctor that really understood Sesamoid Injuries, Dr. Arlene Hoffman: http://afhoffman.com/. She put me in stiff shoes with a orthotic custom fit for my foot (and with a cut out for my sesamoid). Within weeks, I had made incredible progress. From there, I started working with a Physical Therapist at San Francisco Crossfit, who knew how to help people heal from Sesamoid Injuries, Sean McBride at San Francisco crossfit: http://sanfranciscocrossfit.com/staff/sean-mcbride/ . These two magical people have the knowledge and expertise that has allowed me to make progress in healing.

It depends on what your specific Sesamoid injury is, but often treatment includes:

Offloading the bone to get it to heal (6-8 weeks)

Wearing custom orthotics and stiff shoes. Avoiding any positions that aggravate the big toe tendon (being barefoot, high heels, calf raises, planks, jumping, bending the big toe back/ bending the foot).

Gradually re-loading the big toe tendon to get it to absorb force and movement (1-4 years) . Taking it slowly and adding back in movements (like lunges) in moderation to build the big toe tendon to adapt.

If you do all the right things (and listen to your body!!), the threshold for what you can do with the toe and tendon builds as you continue to heal. You are able to become more active with minimal pain. Your foot gets sore sometimes when you adapt to new movements or add back in more activity. Just like a muscle learning to be used again. So you learn to balance building back up strength and giving the foot rest to recover and adapt. I carefully schedule each week to make sure to moderate my activity to make progress. If I know I have a day where I will be on my feet a lot, I schedule the days before and after to rest more or do workouts like swimming to balance everything out. I use my Fitbit to track steps and make sure to  

Here’s what I did to stay active while in the process of healing my sesamoid. Again, this is based off my personal experience and NOT medical advice:

Offload completely. Swim (no walls), hurt foot fitness videos, floor barre, hurt foot pilates. I filmed a LOT of content for my Youtubers!

Start to reload the body without bending the foot. Seated spinning (in hard soled cycling cleats), strength training (squats, bulgarian lunges, hip bridges, core work, upper body work – you can use my Hurt Foot Fitness program for ideas on lots of exercises), and pilates mat.

Gradually re-load the foot. Seated spinning, progressive strength training (slowly building back in exercises like planks, pushups, burpees – all only a FEW reps and carefully), crossfit / skill based movement classes, rowing machine, elliptical machine, wallballs, kettlebells, watt bike, pilates mat.

The good news is, bones heal within 6-8 weeks. The hard part is, tendons take a really really long time. Now that the bone is back to normal, giving the tendon the space to heal requires patience, persistence, and heart. The Sesamoid tendon is a funny one – it needs the right kind of movement to feel better. No movement hurts. Too much movement hurts. But the right types of movement in the right doses makes it feel great. My foot loves the rowing machine (I can’t explain this!), the bike, and squats. It loves it when I load my posterior chain (hamstrings, butt, and back!). It hates it when I walk too far or am barefoot (how crazy is that)? But slowly and surely its beginning to adapt to more movements. Every week my threshold to do more grows greater. I have come so far and I can do SO much today, including BURPEES, and it means so much to experience healing.

Blessings From my Sesamoid Injury

I always say, bless your challenges because it’s because of them you discover your strengths. There have been so many blessings that have come out of my Sesamoid Injury. Here are a few of them:

Sesamoid around the world. I have been practically the ONLY Sesamoid injury who has shared my experience on the internet – so now I have connected with Sesamoid folks ALL over the world and used my experience to help them in their healing journey. I’ve gotten emails from people in Sweden, Dubai, South East Asia…. the list goes on. Neat to have this connection with Sesamoid friends all over the globe.

Hurt Foot Fitness Program. I have the largest “Hurt Foot Fitness” community on Youtube and am helping people manage the mental and physical challenges of injury.  Lots of injured runners and fit folks doing my videos, if you ever have a friend who needs to move with a foot injury, send them here.  

I have taken this physical down time to create MORE products that support my business. I launched Strong Body Beautiful , a 6 week strength and lifestyle program for women. It’s a comprehensive fitness guide that helps teach women HOW to strength train and build a balanced fitness routine. I am really proud of the program, the education, the balanced body (and body positive!) message it’s sending. The women currently in the program have had positive reviews and are experiencing new ways to challenge their bodies, minds, and themselves. Programs like Strong Body Beautiful PREVENT injuries from overtraining, muscular imbalances, or repetitive stress. It’s designed to follow a moderate rate of progression and challenge you in a healthy way so that you see results (not burnout or injuries!). In fact, many of my recovering Hurt Foot Fitness friends on Youtube have enrolled in the program and have been using it to build back their strength and body balance. Now I can help Hurt Foot Fitness people safely transition out of injury towards having a BALANCED body and fitness routine. When you are ready to join us in living a strong life, enroll here.

I’ve been hosting more corporate wellness events and working to support company health initiatives. Getting sick from stress should not be an expected side effect life and I work with companies to prevent burnout, improve performance, and allow employees to thrive.

I discovered the JOY and power of Crossfit. I actually fell into crossfit by accident. My physical therapist Sean works out of a crossfit gym and teaches a crossfit class. One day I showed up for our PT appointment at the wrong time and he invited me to take his class instead. I was scared that it would hurt my Sesamoid, but I was able to complete the class with modifications and felt amazing afterwards. From that moment on I was hooked. I am blessed in that I get to train at the best Crossfit facility in the world with Dr. Kelly Starrett. I am able to participate in crossfit classes (with modifications, ie: rowing machine instead of running, watt bike instead of jump rope, etc). What I love about Crossfit is that every workout is different, uniquely challenging, and highly effective. The workouts are completely scalable, which means that a new participant and a veteran can complete the same workout with changes in load and intensity. It’s diverse fitness programming aims to improve your capacity in all ways: cardio-respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. The result is comprehensive physical fitness and restored vitality. You become a well rounded athlete who can move well, perform well, and excel in the world. I now take 1-2 crossfit classes per week and am convinced it is helping me heal my body.

In the best shape of my life. Since letting go of what I call “repetitive stress” cardio, I am in the best physical shape of my life. I haven’t run in almost 2 years and my body actually loves me for it.  A fear of weight gain seems to be what holds most people worry about when injured. But as counterintuitive as it may seem, I actually ended up losing weight and leaning out, despite not making any huge changes to my diet. Before I stopped running, I was working out regularly and eating clean, but in spite of my best efforts, I was slowly putting on weight that was not muscle. This is all speculation, but I think what wound up happening was that the physical stress from exercise just ended up being too much for my body, exhausting my adrenal system, screwing with my hormones, and causing my my body to hold on to fat. Not good. When I stopped doing so much cardio for more strength training and REST, my body fat went down, lean muscle mass increased, and my muscles became balanced (I have hamstrings and glutes now…. what?!). This is not to say running is bad, I think running is a great way to stay active and move your body. It’s just to say that for me, the repetitive stress of running was causing my body to go into overtraining mode, hold onto fat, and prevent me from feeling good or seeing results.

The best part about this injury? It has elevated my work to new heights and expanded my coaching skills. I am more committed than ever to provide exceptional work that helps people transform their lives. We all face injuries, illnesses, and challenges – now that I’ve had this experience I am even more skilled at helping people everywhere overcome these inevitable life obstacles and finding ways to be active, positive, and live to be their best.

These are all positive life and career changes. They have served in my personal growth and in my purpose of helping people everywhere stay positive and active no matter what challenges they face.

What does this mean for my business goals moving forward? I am here to be a healer, a coach, a teacher, and a light. I am committed to my role as a coach and am here to be great and do my best for you and our world. I can’t jump around like a bunny rabbit or wear high heels yet…. But I am passionate, driven, filled with purpose, and more ready than ever to this work. I believe in my work and I am here to help people transform their lives.

Long story and I sincerely appreciate you reading. I felt it important to write this to you. For you to know that I am committed to to you and to our work together. Thank you for letting me share my story. Please feel free to ask me any questions or let me know your needs in the comments below. I am grateful for all of you and looking forward to sharing an incredible wellness event or BURPEE with you soon.

Love and steps,

Caroline

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