Shadowing Practice: 9 small habits that make my life so much happier :') - Learn English Speaking with Video
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For a lot of my life, I have thought that happiness is a destination, a place you get to when you don't have to worry about paying your bills, you're successful in your career,
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and you're surrounded by people who love you and support you.
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I thought that happiness was the reward for getting all these things right, but I was wrong.
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Happiness isn't just thrust upon you once you've achieved everything that you've wanted to achieve.
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Happiness is something that we can cultivate through small decisions and actions that we take every single day.
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So here are nine habits that I've built over time
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that truly increase my happiness and bring me so much joy and fulfillment every single day.
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Number one, establish small gratitude rituals.
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I genuinely think gratitude is the key to happiness
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because it's the thing that helps ground us in the here now our brain is always adapting
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and normalizing everything that we have
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so any new positive experience whether a new job a new
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car a new partner etc all of the happiness we get from
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that feels so fleeting because it just becomes the new norm
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that we're used to that my friends is the hedonic treadmill gratitude is the thing
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that actually helps us interrupt it because it forces us to actually look at everything
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that we've accepted as normal and not take it for granted.
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So I've noticed that the more I can implement small gratitude rituals into my life, the more content I feel with where I am.
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Three ways that I actually do this every day is number one, saying gratitude before every single meal.
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When Carrick and I started implementing this, the best thing that happened out of it was on our worst days, we were forced to come up with something that made us happy that day.
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Number two is gratitude journaling.
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So in the mornings before I journal about anything else, I always start with a few things I'm grateful for
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because I feel like it really sets the tone for anything else I'm about to write.
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And number three, always saying thank you for the small things.
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This is a huge one for me and Carrick.
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Like even after seven years, we're still saying thank you for the chores that we each do.
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Thank you for taking out the trash.
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Thank you for picking up the poo.
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Thank you for washing the dishes.
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I never want to take any of that for granted.
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For people at work, I always say thank you for your time for my friends even coming over
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and driving to my house like thank you for making the
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trek out here finding ways to be more grateful every single
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day has helped me get off the hedonic treadmill it's what reminds me
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that happiness is always going to be experienced in the here
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and now and the present not at the next milestone number two do less more of the time aka save the
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moment since starting this lovely thing called my corporate job i
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have just been in hyper productivity mode always over engineering optimizing
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multitasking just to make the most out of my time which
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so quickly leads to burnout and feeling like life is just passing me by so more
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and more to actually break out of this i've really been
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trying to reign in my focus to whatever one thing at a time.
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So I can actually be there and enjoy the moment rather than trying to do it all at once.
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So for example, say we get takeout.
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Instead of eating it directly from the container, sitting on the couch, movie on, I've been trying to sit down at the table, plate the food, TV off,
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and with every single bite, actually enjoy and taste it rather than inhaling it mindlessly and not even getting that full experience.
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After dinner is done, we can then move to the couch, watch a movie, make it a whole experience with popcorn.
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So instead of half -assing each experience where each piece doesn't get its full attention,
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I now have two great experiences that I can enjoy in its fullness.
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And that's not to say there's never going to be a
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moment in my future where you find me on the couch pounding some dominoes straight from the box, dipping it in that pizza sauce, binging a limited series on Netflix.
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But the more moments that I can actually slow down and focus on one thing at a time, the more fully I can enjoy every single aspect of
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that experience and not feel like I need to rush and go through life so quickly.
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Number three, be loud about the things I admire.
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Here's my honest confession, okay?
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I am a woo girl.
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I am a staunch believer that if a positive thing crosses my brain, you better bet
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that it is coming out of my mouth no matter how
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small it is the other day we were walking up to the grocery line
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and i'm just pulled in okay
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because it is just this amazing aroma of vanilla fruit i look at the girl scanning my groceries
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and i'm like are you wearing perfume because you smell
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so good and she just lights up she's telling me about the product she's using
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and then i'm happy and so it's like anytime i have the ability to spread positivity
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and i'm thinking good things i'm gonna do it why would i keep
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that to myself
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and the more i've practiced this over time the more my brain has also learned comparison
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and we all know comparison is the thief joy because it truly transforms the thought that's like, this person has this and this, they're so much better than me.
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I feel insecure to a, oh my gosh, this person is incredible.
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I'm in awe of them.
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Like I admire them.
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And so it takes the envy and turns it into more admiration.
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In addition to that, it just trains my brain to look for all of the positivity in life.
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Like we know through confirmation bias, the more we start naming the things that we love
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and we appreciate the more our brains actually start to go
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and look for them in our every single day life number four practice generosity as a skill
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when i first graduated college
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and i was a baby adult i was definitely less generous
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i was like well i can't pour into other people
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if my cup in itself isn't full
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but slowly over time what i found is
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that practicing generosity actually helped me escape that mindset because the more I gave to others,
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the more I affirmed myself that I actually had a lot of abundance in my life.
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For example, right now we're watching one of our friend's dogs while they're in Europe for three weeks, five years ago.
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If you would ask me to do that, I would have been like, I don't know.
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It feels so stressful.
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Like, I don't know if I have the time and space to do that.
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But as we've started to say, yes, it's really taught me that one, the stuff I was scared to give
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and help out with was way easier than i thought like
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having their dog here is literally no change to our routine
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because we already have a dog
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and two it just feels incredible to help out the people
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you love like a side effect of this is i have
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an excuse to be texting them basically every single day
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and hear updates about their trip because we're sending them dog updates
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and so that's kind of what i mean
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when i say practicing generosity as a skill the more i practice it the easier it becomes
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and the more I realize I just I have a lot
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to give the more I share the less I resource guard I will say though one little caveat here
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because I don't want to sound naive this is not me
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saying just go pour your entire heart out for people
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that are not willing to give back to you
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but at the same time it's also not tit for tat like keeping score on who's giving you what
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when and where is a surefire way to actually feel more scarce
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because you're always expecting something back in return
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and that's what makes you know relationships often feel transactional and
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so those are kind of two more extreme cases but i've found
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that as long as i am forthcoming and generous with the people
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that love me back i feel way happier
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and more abundant in those relationships number five curate spaces intentionally to romanticize your life okay you know
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when you walk into a super cute cozy coffee shop
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and the entire ambiance just feels like a big hug spaces can make such a big impact on our mood
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so this habit is really about using my space to actually
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pull me into the moment the way i like to think
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about this is across our senses for sight two big things
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i try to do one keeping it tidy clean space clear mind I always say it on this channel.
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I am a girl that is a little bit messier, but keeping it organized has truly made my brain feel way less cluttered.
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Number two is lighting.
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Oh my gosh.
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I did not realize how big of an impact this would have on just setting the tone when I'm working.
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It's always big lights, big, bright lights.
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So I can focus.
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I can see everything in front of me.
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And then recently we've gotten mood lighting for our living room
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that makes the space feel so much cozier and just like anytime I go there, sit, watch a movie, read a book,
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journal, etc. It makes the entire experience feel like I'm actually indulging in it.
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Next, for sound, I love using music as a soundtrack to my life.
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If you were to spend a day with me, you would hear different genres played throughout the day.
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In the morning, we were blasting EDM in our home gym and hyping ourselves up, dancing a little, getting the day started.
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But then for dinner, we've been throwing on some smooth jazz getting the vibes just
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so romantic and slowing down the pace there by using music we have kind of changed the mood
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and experience to make the most out of it
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and then for smell big candle girl i love to change them out by season
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and because we're moving into fall you know
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when you're coming into our house it smells like pumpkin spice okay
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and all of this is not really about having the most aesthetically pleasing space, but more
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so about how you can use all of the different elements to bring you back into the space
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and really be present in the moment and fully enjoy it, you know?
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Number six, journal to beat rumination.
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Ever since I started journaling, I have gotten way better at regulating my mood
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and not just churning and churning on something over and over and over again.
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And I think it's because a lot of the time when I'm going through something or something's bothering me, I always think that if I just process it long enough in my brain,
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that that's what's going to help me get over it and
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so the same loop just keeps playing and playing in my head
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but i saw someone talk about this where they were like you trying to process something
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that hard in your brain is like you trying to do long division math there are too many pieces
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and functions so like you inevitably mess up
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and then have to start over again and then basically get nowhere
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and i'm like oh my gosh that's so true
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so now anytime i notice
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that i'm starting to spin on something i will just sit down
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and start writing about it five minutes even like the other day i was a little off put by something
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that was set at work, got me in kind of an anxious spiral.
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So I started writing down all my thoughts and I was just like, oh, there's not really an action I can take.
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This thing that it could potentially lead to is out of my control.
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So it doesn't really matter.
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And just being able to go through that process and not having to start all the way at the beginning, every single time, I was able to let, let it go pretty easily.
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Like it was like five to 10 minutes of journaling max.
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And then I was like, oh, that's no longer bothering me.
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Time to move on with my day.
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Almost every time when I'm ruminating on something, there's not really a problem to solve.
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It's just that I need a space to reflect and release.
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And that's what journaling helps me do.
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Number seven, decorate memory lane beautifully and frequently.
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There is so much joy and happiness
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and beauty in taking a second to just stop
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and see how far we've come to reminisce about the life
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that we've lived so much of the time we're just trying to get to the next thing
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that we don't appreciate the journey
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that it took us to get to where we are
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so this one is just really about having the practice of looking back crafting the story for yourself
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and decorating your own memory lane the way you want to
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a few ways i do this for myself is number one i keep a smile file anytime there's something
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that makes me happy from a sweet comment that someone's left on my YouTube, which guys, I appreciate so much to something my friend has sent me,
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or even I took a picture of the sandwich that Carrick made me because he packed me lunch one day.
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Anytime something good happens in my life, I throw it into the smile file because it's my evidence and proof of how beautiful my life has been.
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And it makes me so happy to look back on.
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Number two, I love to make scrapbooks and photo books.
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These definitely take a little bit more time, but through the process, like you are actively going back and reviewing everything that's happened rather than just having,
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you know, your camera roll as a digital repository that you never look at.
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And then number three is I use playlists as time capsules.
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I love to make a different playlist for every season of my life.
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And there's something about just throwing on music from different eras
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that really just suck me in to the feelings at that time.
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Like if you put on some punk rock middle school sarah i have been revived
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or like 2016 frat house rap i can smell the beer on the floor
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and how sticky my shoes are music i find is such
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a good way to capture the feelings through certain time periods of my life
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and so yeah this habit is really just about finding ways to capture
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and reflect on the beauty we've experienced throughout life which is something future me always appreciates.
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Number eight, practice a consistent, simple self -care ritual.
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This is a non -negotiable for my happiness because the more I train myself to take care of myself, even on my worst days,
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the more I give myself proof that I'm a priority no matter what.
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And so every single morning I have a bare minimum routine that I do literally takes five minutes.
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It's brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, lotion, sunscreen, concealer, blush, and then lip balm.
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Basically, it just helps me look a little bit more awake and that there's color in my cheeks.
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Those five minutes make a world of a difference.
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It makes me feel confident, ready to tackle the day.
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It helps me transition from sleepy mode into awake and, you know, ready to focus.
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And even though it's small, it just makes me feel like every single day I have done something for me.
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So no matter how the day turns out, I prioritize myself.
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Number nine, support a healthy gut brain access.
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Okay, so if you haven't heard about the gut brain axes, it's essentially this direct line that your gut has to the brain, consistently communicating back and forth.
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What this means is that your gut health has a huge impact on your mood.
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I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that 90 % of your serotonin and 50 % of your dopamine, so literally your happiness chemicals, are produced in the gut,
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not the brain, which isn't that fascinating?
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Like, I could make an entire video on this.
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Anyway, I'll just sum it up really quick for the things that I do to help support that.
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So number one, less ultra processed food.
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Those are the things that disrupt your gut microbiome.
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Number two, more fruits and veggies, AKA more fiber because fiber I believe is what feeds the good gut bacteria.
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which is what we want more to.
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And then three supplements.
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I take a probiotic, which helps gut health for mood regulation.
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I'll take magnesium, which helps a lot with sleep vitamin D, which has helped a lot with Seattle seasonal depression.
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And then I have a few that helped me regulate my hormones.
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So all of that I know is pretty unsexy, but it's definitely helped my overall mood and emotional regulation.
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All right.
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So that's it.
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Those are the nine habits that I try
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and practice daily to increase my overall happiness
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and well -being they have each in their own individual way brought
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so much more gratitude fulfillment contentment
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and abundance into my life i hope some of these resonated with you
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and thank you so much for watching if you like this video So check out this one or this one, and I will see you in the next one.
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Happiness Habits & English Learning: A Dual Guide
The video shares a relatable journey, shifting from viewing happiness as a distant goal to a daily practice. This dialogue is perfect for english speaking practice—it’s conversational, uses common vocabulary, and explores universal themes, making it ideal for learners aiming to sound natural in daily interactions.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "Cultivate through small decisions" – Useful for discussing habits or personal growth.
- "Hedonic treadmill" – A vivid phrase to describe the cycle of chasing new goals without satisfaction.
- "Hyper productivity mode" – Relatable for talking about busy lifestyles.
- "Reign in my focus" – Great for discussing time management or mindfulness.
- "Half - assing each experience" – Casual slang to describe doing things without full effort (use in informal settings).
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video
Shadowing (or shadowspeak) is a proven technique to boost fluency. Here’s how to use this video: 1. Listen & Repeat: Play 5-second clips, pause, and mimic the speaker’s tone and rhythm. Focus on phrases like "ground us in the here and now" to practice natural intonation. 2. Focus on Connected Speech: Notice how "thank you for taking out the trash" flows—linking "for" and "taking" helps with conversational speed, critical for IELTS speaking practice. 3. Role-Play: Pretend to explain the "do less more" habit to a friend. Use the video’s structure ("For example, say we get takeout...") to organize your thoughts. 4. Record & Compare: Record yourself and match the speaker’s pace. This improves clarity and confidence, key for real-world communication. This video isn’t just about happiness—it’s a tool to learn english with videos in a meaningful way. By shadowing, you’ll master everyday phrases while absorbing valuable life lessons.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been trying · we've been throwing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have thought · you've achieved · I've built |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were forced · was set · have been revived |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who love · life which is |
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.