Shadowing Practice: P91ZAYKnwHA - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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In 2025, I made over 60 videos on different topics. From capsule wardrobe reviews to psychological essays on womanhood, from minimalism to creativity, seeming quite different at the first glance, all of them are centered around one thing, intentional living. And in this video, I will recap 20 most important insights that I shared in 2025 on how to live with intention, which is sort of a radical choice right now in a world that lives by reaction.

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0:00.08 – 0:37.12 (37.0s)

If you watch just a single video from me in 2025 or 2026, this is the one. By the way, if you're new here, hi. I'm Anna, and this channel is about the gentle philosophy of finding and nourishing your true self through meaningful ideas, relationships, and things. I also have a Patreon page where I post more personal, chatty, and vlogy videos about my life as an immigrant, creative, and an HSP.

0:34.16 – 1:05.12 (31.0s)

[music] And I also have a second YouTube channel where I share tips and inspirations for art journaling. I'm a self-taught multimedia artist. All the 20 insights that I'm going to share today are taken from these three channels. Yeah. Including Patreon which is usually payworld. We will talk about productivity, inner freedom, personal values, creativity and more all through the prism of intentional living or intentionality. There are chapters in the video so you can choose what to watch and what to skip. And at the end of the video, I will share just one single advice that I would give to myself and to anyone else for 2026.

1:02.88 – 1:51.56 (48.7s)

Thinking of yourself as your own boss is utterly toxic. As a self-employed creative, for whatever reason, I believed that if I don't have a real boss, I should be one for myself.

2:01.76 – 2:16.16 (14.4s)

[music] I got so exhausted by the whole boss subordinate internal relationship that finally this year it occurred to me that [clears throat] I don't have to turn myself into my own boss. I can be just me and treat myself with love, care, and support. that let's be real are very rare things that happen in the whole corporate world. I am not a corporation. I am a person and I don't need bosses.

2:13.62 – 2:45.56 (31.9s)

We don't have to monetize every little thing that we do. Creating for the sake of creating and hobbying for the sake of hobbying is wonderful. Monetization of one's skills is not the ultimate virtue or goal and money is not the ultimate measure of success. You don't have to earn through your passions. Of course, you can, but you don't have to. The current state of the world is so influential that we are made forget this and then inevitably fall prey to toxic productivity cult and the whole philosophy of constantly increasing your profits.

2:45.84 – 3:30.52 (44.7s)

When I think about the future of jobs, what will matter despite any changes we might witness? I believe that the future lies in communities and humanto human interactions. Something that will never be replaced by machines or faceless corporations and something that will inevitably develop despite the deepest crisis that we are in and the overall division tendencies.

3:31.04 – 3:59.00 (28.0s)

There are two healthier and more ethical substitutes for productivity. [music] focus and presence. These two things do not induce the feeling of deficit which productivity might often result in and instead they bring a feeling of fullness which is a wonderful antidote to mindless consumption.

4:00.08 – 4:26.52 (26.4s)

Confirmism and settling with something only out of fear to be disliked, cancelled, or attacked is not the safest choice. Although it might seem like that at the moment, what I've understood after years of self-censoring, very mild self-censoring, but still present, is that however hard you try to be a painless and harmless person, you will inevitably piss off or disgust or insult someone. And if this situation is inevitable, I think it's worth just standing up for yourself at the very start and embracing the person you are without any apologies.

4:34.72 – 5:22.20 (47.5s)

Outer freedom can be so easily taken away and many many people experience this on a daily basis. When I get too focused on external limiting and restricting factors, I forget that although my suffocating external unfreedom is there and it is out of my control, I still has a lot of expansion potential for my inner freedom. [music] And again, the current state of the world constantly make us forget about this simple truth. People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they [music] seldom use.

5:23.28 – 6:09.08 (45.8s)

My problem with the trend of constant reinvention of yourself is that it's rooted in self-denial, believing that your old version is somehow wrong and not good enough. The thing is that with every change, with every new turn, with every level up move, you don't get a new you. You've already been invented decades ago, and you are not going anywhere from yourself. A person is not a cake. You cannot scrape off the burnt parts and then cover everything up with glossy ganache. It doesn't work this way.

6:12.00 – 6:53.16 (41.2s)

Living through resistance is draining, exhausting, and leads to severe emotional and mental burnout. This is a fighting mode that might be good and even fulfilling for some people, but detrimental for many others. Resistance is a conflict and when you live by resistance, you are in a constant conflict with the world or with yourself. And the best substitute for it is overcoming. Thinking of your life as a constant process of overcoming. And this makes the whole movement of yourself through this world filled with hope and resilience. When a plant grows through thick concrete, it doesn't resist, it overcomes. Before I move on to the next chapter about intentional choices, I want to thank my small and cozy Patreon community who make both of my channels on YouTube possible. If you find this video of mine and other that I make insightful or supportive or helpful in any way, maybe you will also find value in my more regular sharings on Patreon. There are so many videos and different interesting things there and you can join or leave anytime you want.

6:54.80 – 8:24.32 (89.5s)

There are no strings attached and once you join, you will get immediate access to everything that I've posted on my Patreon page since summer 2022.

8:22.00 – 8:35.24 (13.2s)

[music] The fear of missing out is much deeper than I expected. It is more like an existential anxiety about missing out on a correct version of life itself, of choosing the wrong path. This anxiety results in a constant pressure to self-optimize.

8:36.14 – 9:08.64 (32.5s)

People fear of being left with a life that is somehow inauthentic or inferior.

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And as the result, we begin to believe that real answers and safety always lie somewhere else in someone else's epiphany or success or achievement or insights. Life is full of risks and uncertainties and challenges just as it is full of happy moments. And we can so eagerly and easily lose these happy moments if we decide that we somehow are missing out on a happier moment.

9:12.64 – 9:52.36 (39.7s)

to hear your inner voice is not the same as trusting it. [music] It takes a lot of courage. And when you choose to trust it, it's even more vulnerable. Because when things go not as planned, when you feel like your intuition has failed you, it's such a place of despair. Like what else on earth can you trust? [music] And here's where it is very important to remember that this situation could be an experience that had been waiting for you. Not like a test. [music] I just hate this approach to life as being a freaking exam, but not a test, [music] but a narrative that leads you to some important acknowledgments about yourself and your place in this world.

9:54.32 – 10:44.96 (50.6s)

some realizations that otherwise wouldn't be revealed.

10:41.92 – 10:48.76 (6.8s)

Life is not an algorithm that you need to crack. Neither it's a checklist or a road map or an equation. Often times, it's a chaotic heap of puzzle pieces that gives you massive anxiety because you've lost the box and you have no idea what the resulting picture looks like.

10:51.60 – 11:14.40 (22.8s)

But the whole beauty of this situation of a life is that you will get to see it inevitably as you progress.

11:11.60 – 11:22.68 (11.1s)

Comfort zones have an expiration date.

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What felt safe yesterday can become stagnant tomorrow if we don't continue moving, questioning, and shedding what no longer serves us.

11:26.64 – 11:39.16 (12.5s)

You don't have to go through some transformative experience to begin to live. Really, we often tell ourselves that we'll finally feel whole after we get to a certain retreat or go through an expensive mentorship or buy and read this book or finish this course or reach a certain milestone in our professional or personal life. But the thing is that the [music] most profound truths are usually the simplest and the true presence can be gained not only through some vipasa meditation experience but through staying present in your own life by accepting all the challenges accepting your own shadow accepting your feelings and emotions and supporting the person that you are Now the trend of romanticizing your life is not a magic recipe for personal happiness and finding a sense of joy and meaning. It is important to remember that excessive romanticization detaches us from the reality of the world and we become unable to digest its nuances. We are losing touch with a real human unromanticized life without filters and without any frames. And after all, we don't have to romanticize something to make it meaningful.

11:41.20 – 13:22.92 (101.7s)

There is no equality in people. We all have different backgrounds, different startup capitals as they call it, different health, different looks, different ways of thinking, different habits, dreams, etc. Believing in the myth of equality, we keep doing the same things as other people do without ever standing out. And it's so easy to begin to blame yourself for becoming someone that you were not meant to become in the first place.

13:25.20 – 14:02.20 (37.0s)

The loneliness of your inner experience is real and quite hard to accept. In a way, the whole life of a person is the quest for understanding and acceptance.

14:04.32 – 14:18.08 (13.8s)

We strive to get this acceptance from others in order to accept ourselves, our choices and needs and dreams. External validation is some weird relic from ancient times that somehow continues driving our life and making us take certain choices every day. And maybe it is high time that we try to understand ourselves first [music] and foremost using all the different tools that we are drawn to. For example, uh I personally do it through my various creative practices. And maybe once we truly understand the bigger part of our personality of who we are, we will no longer rely on the desire to be understand understood by others. We will no longer depend on that need.

14:15.92 – 15:21.72 (65.8s)

Remember that you are your own inspiration. This is often so overlooked. We search for inspiration outside while forgetting that we are the main and the most abundant source of inspiration for ourselves. I used to subconsciously devalue my creative actions, thinking that I'm just small and insignificant and all over the place. I used to draw inspiration from what other people do.

15:24.00 – 16:02.72 (38.7s)

But that inspiration didn't last long and I would inevitably begin to compare and judge myself. But once I realized that I am my own inspiration, I gained that wonderful creative independence.

15:59.92 – 16:20.12 (20.2s)

Embrace amateurship. I am an art amateur. I have never studied art. I don't know foundations. But what I know is the paralyzing fear of not being good enough or being criticized by art professionals for not knowing stuff.

16:24.24 – 16:41.44 (17.2s)

[music] I had it before and that's what stopped me from trying to draw [music] and paint. I would tell people that I cannot draw. I'm not an artist. But then at some point I stopped and I I told to myself that [music] like damn it I just want to try whatever people might think I don't care and it worked. You don't have to become a professional or an expert to enjoy doing something or making something. Of course you can reach some ambitious levels in your creative endeavors. You can, but you don't have to to love it.

16:40.85 – 17:29.64 (48.8s)

Explore yourself through your personal creative practice, which can be something more than just fun and relaxation. What if it can become your guide, your point of contact with yourself and the world? [music] Then why not giving it a little bit of extra attention, thought, and curiosity? We are so programmed to look for answers outside be them from gurus, political or spiritual or some someone who for some for whatever reason we think know ourselves better than we do. And I'm such a huge advocate for nurturing, for building your own creative practice in order to have a an honest conversation with yourself which is often impossible in everyday life and mundane tasks and all the things. Creative practice is the ultimate concentration of who you are as a person.

17:31.60 – 18:36.76 (65.2s)

Big creative actions are intimidating to many of us, but we still refuse to recognize this artificial pressure to go big or go home. And once we allow ourselves not to go big all the time, a tiny creative action becomes just enough with no big one needed. Sometimes we just need to stare at a lamp to make some tea to notice a bird on a wire and follow our attention as if it was a cozy cabinet of curiosities where we don't owe anything to anyone including ourselves. You can observe, you can put your impressions down, you can use whatever you want and thus remember what kind of person you are at this particular moment in this tiny creative action of yours. English is obviously not my mother tongue. I usually write much better than I speak and that's why I always come up with a very detailed fullfeatured essay before I turn it into a video. For this particular sharing that you are still watching and by the way, thank you for this. I've reread all the 60 plus essays that I've written throughout 2025 [music] and extracted the insights that I wanted to keep that I wanted to remember and take with me to the next year and maybe invite you to think about them as well. may be to motivate you to have some analysis of your life to decide which values you are willing to keep and which ones no longer serve you. The insights that I've extracted from my videos on intentional living, they hold a special meaning. And that meaning was not created by me. It's something that I've come up with being inspired by something that I've overheard or something that happened to me or to people that I know or inspired by some person that I met who I met this past year. And if I could give just one single advice to myself and to everyone else what to do in the next year, it would be document yourself, write yourself down, paint yourself down, film yourself, knit yourself, just capture the person who you are in any way that feels organic to you. And thus you will have something to come back to and to acknowledge and remember who you were, who you are in your life.

18:39.60 – 21:46.00 (186.4s)

Feel free to share in the comments your thoughts, experiences, and insights. But please don't forget to be respectful and kind. All the links to my uh other YouTube channel and to my Patreon community will be in the show notes under this video and also in the first pinned comment. Thank you so much for your time, attention and support of my work, dear friends. For now, as always, be safe and keep your heart open and I will see you soon. Paka paka.

21:43.84 – 22:18.12 (34.3s)

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.

How to Practice Effectively on ShadowingEnglish

Choose your video: Pick a YouTube video with clear, natural English speech. TED Talks, BBC News, movie scenes, podcasts, or IELTS sample answers all work great. Paste the URL into the search bar. Start with shorter videos (under 5 minutes) and content you find genuinely interesting — motivation matters.
Listen first, understand the context: On your first pass, keep the speed at 1x and just listen. Don't try to repeat yet. Focus on understanding the meaning, picking up new vocabulary, and noticing how the speaker stresses words, links sounds, and uses pauses.
Set up Shadowing mode:
- Wait Mode: Choose +3s or +5s — after each sentence plays, the video pauses automatically so you have time to repeat it out loud. Choose Manual if you want full control and press Next yourself after each repetition.
- Sub Sync: YouTube subtitles sometimes appear slightly ahead or behind the audio. Use ±100ms to align them perfectly so you can follow along accurately.
Shadow out loud (the core practice): This is where the real work happens. As soon as a sentence plays — or during the pause — repeat it out loud, clearly and confidently. Don't just mouth the words: mirror the speaker's exact rhythm, stress, pitch, and connected speech. Aim to sound like a shadow of the speaker, not just a word-by-word recitation. Use the Repeat feature to drill the same sentence multiple times until it feels natural.
Scale up the challenge: Once a passage feels comfortable, push your limits. Increase speed to <code>1.25x</code> or even <code>1.5x</code> to train high-speed language reflexes. Or set Wait Mode to <code>Off</code> for continuous shadowing — the most advanced and rewarding mode. Consistent daily practice of 15–30 minutes will produce noticeable results within weeks.

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Speak English fluently using the Shadowing technique. Listen to native YouTube videos, repeat sentence by sentence, and build real pronunciation and fluency — used by IELTS learners worldwide.

Shadowing Practice: P91ZAYKnwHA - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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