DYI Pallet Furniture Ideas – Easy, inexpensive & Eco Friendly
Wooden Palettes are sitting around everywhere around Montreal, waiting to be transformed. Originally they are used by businesses for big bulk shipments, but end up very often being abandoned or hanging around for months with no use or purpose at all.
This doesn’t have to be the case though, the pallets are made of good quality wood and can be reclaimed and recycled in to unique and useful projects. Pallets can be found everywhere at supermarkets, behind stores, in alleys, abandoned lots. Pretty much anywhere where there is large shipment transactions going on.
My advice to you based on my personal experience, if you want to create something with the pallets, just do it! Don’t be shy to ask the business managers or owners if you can take a few, and don’t be lazy either and make excuses that you have no way to get them. Organize for someone to help you pick the pallets up and help you deliver it to your place. If you don’t have any family or friends who are available at the time to help you, then do as I did and just put up a post on craigslist or Kijiji, in the gigs /labor section. Hire a man with a Van, it might cost a few extra bucks to help you move them but you will have something of value that you created, while at the same time being environmentally conscious and responsible.
Once you have them in your humble abode, all you need is a saw, hammer and nails, and of course your imagination! If your not too good with tools, there are many things you can create with the pallets without tools or having to take them a part.
Check out some of these interesting design ideas below. I’ve included some very simple but charming pallet furniture projects that anyone can do and some other more challenging ones for the more handy builders out there. I hope you create some beautiful creations. And don’t be afraid to push your limits, just because your not handy now, doesn’t mean that you can’t be tomorrow. Take out the drill, and use it! Don’t limit yourself by your gender either, be all that you dream of being.
We are always working on different unique Upcycling projects at Valhalla Montreal. If you would like to join in and help out with one, we are at the land every Saturday, and welcome anyone who has a calling to join in.
Wooden Pallet Coffee Table
Wooden Pallet Deck
Garden Path Made with Pallets
Wooden Pallet Bed with Storage Drawers
Wood Pallet Book/Magazine Shelf
Wooden Pallet Stair Case
Wooden Pallet Dog Bed
Wooden Pallet Outdoor Furniture
Romantic /Wedding Pallet Furniture
Kitchen Pallet Ideas
The Importance of Conquering Your Fears
For many of us fear is something we deal with on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s a huge, impending threat (like death or tax time), or something relatively small. While fear itself is not necessarily a bad thing (in fact it is an important survival mechanism), the cumulative effects and repercussions can be enormous, and extremely destructive to ourselves and those around us. With this in mind, learning to control and conquer our fears is an essential skill, we should all have, in order to lead richer, fuller lives.
For that reason, we’ve crafted a quick and easy challenge to help you identify, and overcome all your fears like a true Super hero. Take the challenge here!
Before we can really conquer our fears though, we need to know what we’re dealing with. Fear is a feeling of distress that arises from a sense of an impending threat. What’s really interesting about this, is that the threat needn’t necessarily be a real, tangible danger. Indeed an indirect or imagined threat is often much more powerful and debilitating. A prime example of this phenomenon is in horror movies, where the suspense and the looming sense of danger is often much more terrifying than the confrontation itself. Real or imagined though, the phenomenon is in fact an important evolutionary survival mechanism, which serves to protect us from harm. In the presence of fear, our adrenal glands kick into overdrive, flooding our system with adrenaline, stimulating our blood and oxygen flow, which heightens our physical functions of strength and speed, and dilates our pupils, enhancing our ability to see, detect and therefore avoid danger. While this 
is without doubt an amazing and remarkable function, it is not without it’s drawbacks.
In the modern world we live in, where mankind has taken dominion over most of the planet, this acute system of ours, honed over millennia, is no longer as imperative to our survival as it once was, and adverse effects are a natural by-product when not dealt with appropriately.
Today the vast majority of the fear we experience is of a non-physical nature; fear of failure, humiliation, public speaking, etc, and without a direct threat to respond to, or an appropriate outlet, this fear and the physiological effects it brings, result in impaired mental capacity, and reduced logical and rational information processing. When therefore, fear begins to drive our thoughts and actions, our reactionary ability is compromised and we often find ourselves scrambling to protect our illusions of security and safety, thereby inhibiting ourselves from ever really learning from the experience, growing as people and blocking our ability to reach a place of courage, joy, peace or acceptance.
The implications of fear left unchecked are far reaching and incredibly damaging. Because fear is to us a position of vulnerability, our tendency is to turn this fear into anger – a much more powerful and less vulnerable emotion.
Given that our minds are the Captains of our vessels and the interactions we have with the world, the presence of fear can be a poisonous influence.
Physiologically speaking, it threatens to weaken our immune system, cause cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal problems (ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, decreased fertility, etc), impair brain functions (particularly causing damage to the hippocampus), and our ability to regulate emotion; making us more susceptible to react to future stimuli with fear or anger and ultimately can lead to clinical depression, accelerated ageing, and even premature death.
It’s clear then how damaging the influence of fear can be, therefore it’s all the more important to realise that you can never truly run from your fear. You can keep on running, but sooner or later, you will find yourself backed into a corner. Therefore, one of the most valuable skills for both our mental and physical health that we can teach ourselves and others is how to control, and conquer our fears.
The truth is, there is no “easy way”, or side-stepping this process; the way to conquering fear is to tackle them head on, not to run around t
hem. Start small and progressively shatter your limits. With each little victory, you will gain the courage to tackle the next, and will find yourself empowered in the process.
The truly courageous are not those without fear, but those who stand up and face that fear head on. In doing so, they unlock perhaps the greatest super power that we as a species can wield; by harnessing the adrenaline fuelled, hyper-sensitivity of their fear – all senses functioning at optimal capacity, and clear-headed focus and mental acumen. It’s a phenomenon well known to adventure sports athletes, simply referred to as “the zone”. More importantly though, by squaring up to your fears, and tackling them face to face, you “flex the muscle” of courage, gain a new sense of freedom, inner confidence, and faith in your own power and potential.
With this in mind, we’ve created a five step process to help you master your fear, and push your own limits, through much trial and error. Check it out.
Identify your fear
Make sure you’ve identified the true root cause – the dirty, brutal, uncomfortable truth; acknowledge and accept it. By doing so, it will begin to lose it’s power. Mental game is half the battle.
Visualise
Visualise yourself overcoming that fear in a real-time scenario, make it as vivid as possible in the details as possible. Break it down step by step. Repeat regularly and it will start to feel normal, or at least more comfortable.
Breathe
Quick, shallow breathing is often a catalyst of anxiety, and other symptoms often follow. If you can control your breathing, you can keep your mind focused and in control.
Breathe in through your nose, and out through the mouth. Exhale for roughly twice the amount of time as the inhale. This is a proven method to lower your heart rate.
Accountability
Find someone to join you in the journey and help you along the way. Having someone beside you takes the onus off just your own shoulders, and provides the extra push to get it done. This is universally applicable, whether you want to hit the gym more, conquer fears, or anything that takes some pattern-forming.
Action
It’s time – you’re ready. Stay focused, stay calm and go. You’ve got this!!
To wrap this up, remember, fear in itself is just an elegant survival mechanism that we ourselves can master. By conquering your fears and pushing your own limits, you will empower yourself for a richer life.
If you’re struggling to overcome your fears, or you could use another hand, check out the Dream of Flight Challenge! for that extra little push, and to help you on the way!!
Johnny Depp Intends To Buy Indian Reservation And Gift It Back To The Native American People
Actor Johnny Depp wants to purchase the historical landmark Wounded Knee and gift it back to the Native American people to help make right what went so wrong in 1890. by Amanda Froelich
In an interview with The Daily Mail on Sunday, well-known actor Johnny Depp disclosed that he intends to buy Wounded Knee, a national historic landmark, and gift it back to the Indian people. He shared that he is ready to spend millions in order to give control back to those that should have inherited the land, and help make right what went so wrong back in 1890.
“It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there,” he said. “And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (Federal government) and the people who should own that land. This historical land is so important to the Sioux culture and all I want to do is buy it and give it back. Why doesn’t the government do that?“
Perhaps it was Depp’s stint playing the role of Tonto in the box office production The Lone Ranger that inspired him to pursue such action; whatever the inspiration, the activism will most certainly be appreciated by many.
Depp spent a massive amount of time doing research about the various tribes and received the approval from many Native American groups before the filming of The Lone Ranger began. His respect for the Native American culture runs deep, and he wanted to make sure that all those involved with the production were doing right by “the Indian” in the way they portrayed the various tribes.
“The idea was to give back to them and to make sure that we got it right,” he said in the lengthy interview.
“This picture of the Miniconjou Sioux band was taken near the site of the Wounded Knee massacre one month before the December 1890 massacre where hundreds of Indians were killed.”
Credit: Corbis
According to the news source, Depp is intent on following through with the aforementioned plan. The asking price for Wound Knee is $3.9 million, which is a fraction of what Depp makes from one production. That said, there is little standing in the way of him keeping true to his promise.
“I am doing my best to make that happen. It’s land they were pushed on to and then they were massacred there. It really saddens me,” he stated.
The area near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (in South Dakota) is where the last major battle of the American Indian Wars took place. The fight reportedly began when an elderly tribesman refused to hand over his weapon. Troops attacked, and at least 150 members of the Lakota tribe – including men, women, and children – were killed.
Honoring the Native American culture by purchasing the historical location will be a major step in helping to make right what went so wrong over a hundred years ago. The event has caused outrage from historians as at least 20 American soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their role in the massacre. Now, at least, the public is more educated on the solemn history and can do what’s right moving forward.
What are your thoughts on this news? Comment below and share this article!
Study Shows Meditation Helps Reduce Racial Bias
by Jill SuttieThis article was originally published by Greater Good in Action.
The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the choking death of Eric Garner in New York City have shaken American society to its core, triggering waves of protests. Most Americans seem to feel that racism played a role in these deaths-that they never would have happened if the victims had been white.
While we struggle to make sense of it all, we may also wonder what we would have done if we were in those same situations, as either the unarmed victims or the police. Would we have acted with more caution? Might we have been subject to the same biases that led to these tragedies? And could our conscious brains have overridden any hidden biases we hold?
A new study suggests that, yes, it can be done-and the key might be cultivating nonjudgmental, moment-to-moment awareness of thoughts and feelings.
Research has shown that most of us make split second assumptions about people based on superficial differences in appearance. Scientists have learned to study these unconscious biases using a test called the Implicit Assumptions Test or IAT, which measures how quickly people associate negative or positive words-like “bad” or “good”-with photos of people representing different social groups-such as African Americans or the disabled-flashed upon a screen. Prior studies have shown that white participants taking the IAT tend to have quicker response times when pairing words representing “good” characteristics with white faces and words representing “bad” characteristics with black faces, reflecting their biases about blacks and whites.
This research has real-world implications. Negative associations have been shown to affect how quick study participants are to shoot at a black suspect versus a white suspect when presented with a simulated experience that involves making that decision under ambiguous conditions or time constraints-the kind of decision police officers repeatedly face in their work. Another study found that even trained police officers, when primed to see blacks as dangerous under simulated conditions, are more likely to shoot blacks than whites, whether or not the suspect had a gun.
Interestingly, studies have found that implicit associations, though largely unconscious, are malleable; these studies have identified ways to mitigate negative associations. For example, one study has shown that presenting whites with images of exemplary figures from black history-such as Martin Luther King, Jr.-reduces their knee-jerk negative evaluations of blacks and their knee-jerk positive evaluations of whites. In addition, some studies have suggested that putting people in a positive mood-even just getting them to smile-can interrupt negative implicit attitudes, while other studies suggest that cross-racial friendships also may attenuate implicit biases.
Now, a newly published study by researchers Adam Lueke and Brian Gibson of Central Michigan University suggests another way to impact implicit assumptions: mindfulness.
In their study, 72 white college students were measured on their levels of implicit bias of blacks and the elderly using the IAT. Some participants then listened to a 10-minute mindfulness meditation in which they were instructed to “become aware of bodily sensations (heartbeat and breath) and fully accept these sensations and any thoughts without restriction, resistance, or judgment”; other participants listened to a recording about natural history, voiced by the same narrator. Afterwards, the two groups of students were evaluated on their levels of mindfulness and then reassessed on their levels of implicit bias using the IAT.
Results showed that people who listened to the 10-minute mindfulness recording demonstrated less implicit bias against blacks and old people on the race and age IATs than individuals who listened to the other 10-minute recording. In other words, the mindfulness intervention decreased students’ automatic biases against blacks and older adults.
Why might that be? Mindfulness has been shown before to interrupt the link between past experience and impulsive responding. For example, mindfulness training has been shown to help overeaters decrease the automatic attractiveness of fatty foods, allowing them to resist eating those foods when the foods are presented to them. Mindfulness also encourages a kind of open awareness that can make one more attuned to what’s actually occurring in the present moment-hypothetically allowing one to filter out preconceptions from actual experience, and thereby decrease bias.
One interesting consideration is that in the present study the mindfulness training was very brief and non-specific-in other words, the authors did not specifically try to train the participants in bias-reduction. This leads the authors to suggest that brief mindfulness training may be a good substitute for-or may augment-more traditional anti-bias training.
Could mindfulness training for police officers have made a real difference in Ferguson or New York? It’s hard to say. Even the authors of this study resist equating mindfulness training and bias reduction with decreased racist behavior in the real world, though their lab is currently trying to assess whether or not mindfulness could have that impact.
Still, if such a brief mindfulness intervention can reduce biases, it makes a strong case for teaching mindfulness to youth-and adults as well. If we could all learn to keep some of our knee-jerk biases in check, perhaps we might stand a better chance of preventing future Fergusons from happening again.
From Dishonored Grandmother to Solar Engineer
We’re all looking for stories of hope – that the world can be changed, that we are not limited by our culture, our backgrounds, our histories. Lucy Naipanoi, a grandmother of the Maasai in Kenya, one of the last hunter gatherer tribes left on the planet, represents the potential for evolution and advancement that has …
Ten Reasons Why Soils will Save the World
Contribute to the global effort to restore soil functions which have been destroyed CLICK HERE Healthy, fully functioning soils will: 1. Provide highly nutritious food without the use of chemical inputs. 2. Solve the health crisis through strengthening the human biome. 3. Hold huge amounts of water and so prevent the flooding …
Reversing Climate Change – Why Soil will Save the World
Can we do it? Is it already too late? Many of us are wondering how we can possibly turn the juggernaut of limited industrial profit-based materialism around. Time to stop wondering and worrying—yes it is possible—and we are already doing it. Although the statement “the answer lies in the soil” seems too simplistic, this time …
INSTAGRAM STAR WAKES UP: I Quit Social Media Because Of My 12 Year Old Self
Instagram star and Australian teen Essena O’Neill started off her journey as a young 12 year old girl spending hours watching perfect girls online, wishing she was them. Now, she is one of them. She has become the “perfect internet girl” she has always dreamed of being and is getting all the “likes”, praise and the so-called “good life” that comes with it. And guess what? She is now calling B.S. on the industry that made her famous.
“I had everything I ever wanted. Now I’m here and I see how contrived, fake and forced consistently proving to the world ‘how amazing my life/body/self is”. I spent everyday looking at a screen, viewing and comparing myself to others. It’s easier to look at shiny and pretty things that appear happy, than stopping and just getting real with yourself.”
She has now rewritten every caption of her old “perfect” and “happy” Instagram pictures, divulging the real intention behind them and the “not so happy” state of being she was actually in. Talk about an act of vulnerability!
Essena, who is now 19 years old, hopes that this will inspire others to live an authentic life that is true to themselves as opposed to sink in the illusion that more “likes” and “followers” means you are happier and more worthy. In fact, she encourages all “followers” to step off the follower train with this beautiful statement:
“I can’t tell you how beautiful life is without a phone, without social media, without comparing, or likes or followers. We are not followers, we are beings of individuality and love. I have never felt so free.”
Watch Essena pour her heart out in this video in which she shares her struggle of upholding an image of “perfection” for the world to admire, and how free she feels to finally let it go:
MORE AND MORE CELEBRITIES ARE SHIFTING CONSCIOUSNESS
Shout out to all the brave souls who, despite having “gained the world”, are choosing not to lose their souls in the process. Thank you for helping break this illusion by speaking out and sharing your humaneness with all of us. This is what our children need to hear; that is it PERFECT to be imperfect. That is is PERFECT to be human, to feel sad at times, and most of all, that it is PERFECT to be yourself.
It seems more and more celebrities are speaking out about the illusion of celebrityism and the idea that wealth, fame and being “valued” by the world will make you happy. Cara Delevingne and Lady Gaga being two of the latest celebs admitting to it and expressing their desire to break free. Imagine what it must feel like to build your entire sense of self based on a mask you wear, and be “loved” not for you, but for a false image you have created of yourself. This is the lonely throne that many who have reached the so-called “top” find themselves in. And this is what the mass media and entertainment industry tell you and your kids to strive for in order to be “happy”…
Help Someone Grow by Sharing This
Actual share count is delayed under high traffic.
Promote Higher Consciousness With SOULSpot! Join Us & We Can Grow Together.