Shadowing Practice: 5 Things to Tell Yourself Every Morning - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Every morning your brain gives you this rare window to rewire who you are,
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but most people waste it by scrolling or stressing out or hitting the snooze button on their potential.
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But these five different thoughts repeated every single morning could anchor your mindset, can shut down your self -doubt,
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and can guide you kind of like a compass would through the chaos of your day.
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What I'm going to teach you isn't toxic positivity or woo -woo fluff.
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What I'm going to teach you is ancient stoic philosophy and wisdom backed by modern neuroscience.
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So if you've been feeling overwhelmed or lost or like you're just living on autopilot, this episode is designed to be your wake -up call
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because the way that you start your morning is the way that you shape your entire life.
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Now, why do you want to do this in the morning versus the afternoon or before you go to bed?
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Well, neurologically, the morning is the best time to access your subconscious because your brain is in a more suggestible state.
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Right after you wake up, your mind moves through alpha and theta brain waves.
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And this is the same relaxed receptive frequencies that are used in hypnosis and also deep meditation.
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So in this state, the critical analytical part of your brain, which is called the prefrontal cortex, hasn't even really fully kicked in yet.
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And so suggestions and affirmations, the way that you speak to yourself,
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bypass the resistance of your prefrontal cortex and go straight into your subconscious.
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Think of it like this.
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Your subconscious door is just slightly open a little bit more in the morning.
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So what you feed into your subconscious will sink deeper and stick longer,
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which is why repeating these phrases and repeating empowering beliefs
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and visualizing your goals
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and doing mindset priming first thing can actually rewire your thought
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patterns much faster than doing it any other time of the day.
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Also, the important part of this is that neurologically, your cortisol levels, which are your stress hormones, naturally spike in the morning,
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which sounds like it'd be a bad thing, but neurologically it's not.
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It makes it more natural of a window for your focus in neuroplasticity and neuroplasticity is your brain actually changing itself.
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So combine all of that with intention
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and you're literally reprogramming your brain before you go out into the world every single day.
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The bottom line is if you want to shape your inner narrative, your morning is absolutely your golden hour.
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So make sure you use your morning to prime your brain into who you want to be
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and what you want to believe.
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Okay?
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So what we're going to take is stoic philosophy.
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And what is stoicism?
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What I'm going to teach you today is based in the, like I said, stoic philosophy, but also neurology.
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Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that teaches you how to stay grounded, how to stay calm, and how to stay clear no matter what life throws at you.
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And it's not about suppressing emotions or pretending like everything's okay when your house is on fire.
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It's about mastering your inner world so that you can live and lead your life with purpose.
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Think of it as building your mental armor for a chaotic world, okay?
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So these are the five different things you wanna tell yourself, and this is the reason why each one of them is important, okay?
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Number one is today, I will meet resistance, and that's not a problem, I welcome it.
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This came from Marcus Aurelius in his book, Meditations, which is his actual personal journal to himself.
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And when he says, he says, when you wake up in the morning, tell yourself, I will meet people who are meddling,
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ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, and jealous, and that is okay.
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What Marcus Aurelius was doing here, he wasn't trying to be a buzzkill and be like, oh, I'm gonna meet shitty people all day.
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What he was doing was he was basically giving us a shield by expecting
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that today would be difficult in some sort of way we don't need to spiral and life gets messy.
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I know that when I go out into my day, when I leave my bed, there will be some sort of resistance.
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Things will get hard.
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That's okay.
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I'm not going to fight it.
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I'm going to welcome it and I'm going to work through it.
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Hey, to the 65 .6 % of you who watch my videos but are not subscribed, yes, we see it.
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And if you've ever learned anything from any of the videos I've put out, please do me a favor.
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Hit that subscribe button.
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It helps the channel grow and it helps me keep making more content to help you grow as well.
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So with that, let's go back to the show.
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The reason why this is important is because things are going to happen in your life.
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Like the rude email, it's going to come through.
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It's not a personal attack.
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It's just a part of the game.
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You know, if your kid is losing it at breakfast, that's not about you.
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If you're jumping on the scale right after you get out of bed and it's still not moving, It's not a verdict of your self -worth or any of that.
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And science backs this viewpoint up.
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In 2003, there was a study by a psychologist named Shelly Taylor who introduced the idea of what's called stress inoculation.
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When we anticipate stress or we anticipate something being harder,
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our brains regulate better under pressure versus being like caught off guard.
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And so what happens is it actually reduces cortisol spikes, which is your stress hormone, and keeps your amygdala, which is your panic center of your brain, from hijacking your thinking.
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And so you're understanding that, hey, I might go into my day.
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There might be resistance.
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There might be obstacles.
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That's okay.
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I expected it was gonna be this way and I welcome it.
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Versus like, oh my God, shit's hitting the fan.
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Now I'm going crazy.
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The kids are going crazy.
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I'm completely knocked off from my day.
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It's like, no, I might leave my bedroom and stuff might happen that might be crazy today.
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I'm okay with it, okay?
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So that's the first one.
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Number two is I can't control everything, but I can control how I show up.
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So this comes from the quote from Epictetus, who is a Stoic philosopher.
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And he says, some things are in our control, but most things are not.
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And so when you look at Stoicism, they divided the world into basically two different buckets.
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Number one, which is what I control, which is my actions, my choices, my attitude.
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And then what I can't control, which is other people, the past, the outcome, pretty much everything outside of me, my actions, my choices, my attitude.
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And the problem with most people is that most people spend 90 % of their day,
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their mental energy, worrying and trying to control the wrong bucket.
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Like so many people are trying to control what is absolutely uncontrollable.
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And so what really this comes down to is I'm going to focus on what I can control
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and only what I can control.
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And so when you look at psychology and how psychology actually backs this up, this is actually called the locus of control, which comes from Julian Rotter.
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And so studies show when you actually look at people who have a good internal locus of control,
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which is people who focus on what they can influence, those people have higher well -being in their life,
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they have lower anxiety, and they have more motivation and grit.
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And so anytime you start to feel stress coming on, like look at the circumstance and say, is this in my control?
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And if it's not in your control, release it.
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Because why would you stress out over something you can't control anyways?
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If it is in your control, act with intention.
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Now, you might have something come to you, which is, you know, you see something coming up and you're like, is this in my control?
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You're like, part of it, like, what can I control?
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Okay, let me take action on what I can control and release the things that I cannot control.
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And so that's the second thing to start your day with.
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Number three is I am not my thoughts, I am the thinker of them.
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So when psychologists look at stoic philosophy, they call this stoic cognitive distancing.
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Your brain is a thought factory.
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Just understand that.
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It turns out wild stories, It turns out worst case scenarios.
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It turns out self -doubt, not good enough, all of that.
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Why does it do that?
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Because that is its job.
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Its job is to scare you.
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If you just know this, it'll make your life so much easier.
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Your brain's job is to scare you.
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Why?
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Because it wants to keep you safe.
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And if you're scared, you won't get out of your comfort zone.
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And if you don't get out of your comfort zone, then you're going to be quote unquote safe.
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You won't risk anything if you stay in your comfort zone.
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But if you don't risk anything in your life, you risk everything in your life because you will not become what you could become.
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So you need to learn through this and knowing that that's what your brain does, that you cannot identify with your thoughts.
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You are not the machine.
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You're the operator.
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The machine is your brain.
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The operator is you.
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And so you've got to tell yourself, that's just a thought.
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That's not prophecy.
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It's not fact.
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It's just a thought.
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And when you feel that wave of I'm not good enough
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or the day's already ruined or why even try because I always fail anyways, just pause for a second.
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Just try to see yourself.
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Like I always say, you can't read the label when you're inside the jar.
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Take yourself out of the jar, out of your own brain, and look at the situation.
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You as a human dealing with a certain situation.
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So you pause.
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You observe as if you're somebody else watching yourself.
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And you don't merge with the drama of your mind.
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And so you look at it and you say, okay, that thought that just came in, that's pretty interesting.
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That's not the thought that I want.
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That's not the thought that I believe.
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I don't want to believe that.
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And you distance yourself from it and start talking.
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What I recommend is you actually start talking out loud to yourself.
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So in neuroscience, this is called mindfulness -based cognitive therapy.
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And so what you're trying to do is you're trying to become the observer of your thoughts.
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You want to look at them and just say, I am not my thoughts.
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I am the thinker of my thoughts just distancing yourself from your thoughts, especially in the morning and setting yourself up that way throughout your day will relieve so much stress throughout your day.
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So that's number three.
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Number four, say this to yourself every morning.
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I am grateful for all that I have.
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So Seneca, another one of the most famous Stoic philosophers says nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
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Gratitude.
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I used to think it was this weird woo woo wee.
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Oh my God, I'm going to be so grateful.
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Gratitude isn't soft.
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Gratitude is life -changing.
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In a world that is addicted to more and consuming and more and more, choosing to see the enoughness,
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choosing to be grateful for what you have is like revolutionary because everybody wants more and more and more.
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So if you can see the places where you're enough and you have enough and you'd be grateful for those, you're way different than everybody else.
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I was at a restaurant this past week
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and my wife pointed to something on the wall and it was a sign on the wall.
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And it said, happy people aren't grateful, grateful people are happy.
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And I was like, yeah, that's so true.
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Like people who just decide I'm going to be grateful for all that I have, even if it's not as much as other people are
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so much happier than the people who feel like they don't have enough.
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And I don't mean like you need to like fake a smile or any of that type of stuff.
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Being grateful just means I'm going to look at what I have
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and realize that I have enough right now and I can still work towards more if I want to.
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Gratitude doesn't mean that you don't feel grief or struggle or work for more.
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Like gratitude can coexist with grief and with struggle and with striving to be even more.
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And so a morning practice
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that you can bring in with this is to just write down a few things
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that you're grateful for and be weirdly specific.
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Like, I am grateful for the way the sun comes in through my windows and hits the counter.
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I am grateful for that one friend who texts me all of those dumb memes.
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I am grateful for the fact that I'm breathing today.
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150 ,000 people die every single day.
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That means 150 ,000 people did not wake up today that were alive yesterday.
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Oh my God, I'm still here.
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If nothing else, that's something I could be grateful for.
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And so neurologically speaking, gratitude actually boosts levels of dopamine and serotonin in your brain.
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Those are your brain's feel -good chemicals.
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So if you just want to feel better, you want more dopamine, you want more serotonin.
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So neurologically speaking, just be more grateful.
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Research at UC Davis and UC Berkeley shows that regular gratitude practices increases optimism by 25%,
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improves sleep and immune function, oddly enough, and then reduces inflammatory biomarkers linked to stress and disease just by finding things that you're grateful for.
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And so it literally rewires your brain for resilience and what you wanna focus on because what you focus on will grow.
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So that's number four.
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And then number five, which if you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you've heard me say this before, life is short.
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I'm not guaranteed another sunrise.
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I want to live today like it's my last.
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Life is short.
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I'm not guaranteed another sunrise.
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I want to live today like it's my last.
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This is the idea of memento mori, which is one of the most famous concepts of stoicism.
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And that means remember that you're going to die.
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And so Marcus Aurelius has a famous quote that says, it's in his journal that says, you could leave your life right now.
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Let that determine what you do and what you think.
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And so let's not dance around it.
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You're going to die.
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We all are.
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But instead of fearing that, Stoicism just basically asks, what if you use that to wake up and make something amazing with your life?
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This isn't morbid.
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It's more of like a compass than anything else.
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And so you want to ask yourself, if today was my last day, would I be proud of how I showed up?
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If today was my last day, would I be doing what I'm doing right now?
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Am I putting off my joy or my peace or my purpose like I've got an infinite amount of time?
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You're like, what am I tolerating today that my soul is like secretly begging me to change?
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In psychology, when you look at this, in 2017, there was a study done at the University of Missouri that found out that what's called mortality salience,
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which is contemplating your death, increase life satisfaction and pro -social behavior.
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Why?
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Because it jolts you into being present into actually what matters in your life
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and people who reflect on death regularly have greater clarity around their goals
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and their values and are more likely to live according to those goals and those values as well.
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And so here's my challenge to you is to write down these five different things
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that I've covered today and to take the next seven days.
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As soon as you wake up in the morning, you go to the bathroom, you brush your teeth, you do some 60 seconds of breath where you just breathe in,
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breathe out, and then look at the piece of paper where you wrote all this down
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and say these five things to yourself 10 times each.
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number one, say it 10 times, number two, say it 10 times, number three, say it 10 times.
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And that is how you actually start to rewire your brain and your subconscious for mental resilience.
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This is really what it comes down to.
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So if this is important to you, to have better perspective and be able to take your action towards your life more seriously,
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repeat these five things to yourself every single morning.
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Hey, thanks so much for watching this video.
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Based off of what you've been watching recently, out of all of the hundreds of videos I've posted, YouTube has picked this one for you to watch next.
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And if you want to make sure you don't miss any more videos, click this button right here.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 227 sentences and 2905 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:49. The speaker talks fast, about 184 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- grateful /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/ (adjective) — Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.
- gratitude /ˈɡɹæ.tɪ.tud/ (noun) — The state of being grateful.
- comfort /ˈkʌm.fət/ (noun) — Contentment, ease.
- versus /ˈvɝsəs/ — Against; in opposition to.
- psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ (noun) — The study of the human mind.
- breathe /bɹiːð/ (verb) — To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.
- guarantee /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/ (noun) — Anything that assures a certain outcome.
- intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/ (noun) — A course of action that a person intends to follow.
- operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/ (noun) — A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.
- cognitive /ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/ (adjective) — Relating to the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective which deals with emotions.
- grief /ɡɹiːf/ (noun) — Suffering, hardship.
- bucket /ˈbʌkɪt/ (noun) — A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items.
- scare /skɛɚ/ (verb) — To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
- anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ (adverb) — Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
- subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/ (verb) — To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- wake up /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ (verb) — To stop sleeping; to awake.
- come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
- get out of (verb) — To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
- turn out (verb) — To end up; to result.
- come down to (verb) — To reach by moving down or reducing.
- come in /ˌkʌm ˈɪn/ (verb) — To enter.
- show up (verb) — To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 80 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, thinker /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/, theta /ˈθiːtə/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, shield /ˈʃild/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, philosopher /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like grateful, gratitude, comfort.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If you just know this, it'll make · if you're scared, you won't get · if today was my last day, would I |
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | you've been listening · you've been watching |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | brain, which is · levels, which are · Meditations, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is designed · is called · is based |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.