Shadowing Practice: Doing Hard Things Rewires Your Brain | Mel Robbins #shorts - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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That uncomfortable feeling that you feel when you are getting to that vigorous type of exercise, whether it's doing a run or it's,
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you know, doing some resistance training where you're really doing hard things, that uncomfortableness, there's also a neurochemical reaction going on in your brain.
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So we have an endogenous, that just means in our body, opioid system, okay?
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Opioids, we're usually thinking of, you know, maybe exogenous ones that people take to help with pain relief, right?
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Like morphine, for example.
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We make our own opioids, endorphins, right?
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Endorphins are something that we make.
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Those are the feel-good opioids that we make in our brain.
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You do make that with exercise, but you also make a type of opioid that makes you feel uncomfortable.
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It's called dynorphin.
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It's responsible for that uncomfortable feeling, that feeling that's like, oh, I want to stop.
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I can't do this.
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It's hard, right?
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Dynorphin is is that uncomfortable like neurochemical that's being produced
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and what that does is when your brain is making that
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and you don't give up you keep pushing past it it
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has this feedback loop in your brain where then your brain goes oh this is
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that bad now it's i don't want to call it bad
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it's the dysphoric feeling i better figure out a way to deal with
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that and adapt and make something good so that later
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when i have that uncomfortable dysphoric feeling i don't feel so uncomfortable
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And so what happens is your brain starts to make more of these receptors.
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Receptors are things that neurochemicals and neurotransmitters and things like that bind to to have an effect.
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So they make more of the receptors that bind endorphins.
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They're called mu opioid receptors and they become more sensitive to endorphins.
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This happens only when you're getting that uncomfortable dynorphin you know flooding your brain
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and so what happens is then later on
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when anything happens that's a little bit pleasant you're going to feel it better
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and for a longer period of time and so
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that just makes everything easier when you have that sensitive
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that sensitization to these endorphins
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which we are making all throughout the day little things like
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yo seeing your friends smile like all these little things they're making you make endorphins
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And it's just a matter of how powerful are you going to feel that endorphin.
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And so the uncomfortableness of the dynorphin is what is doing that.
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But you have to engage in the hard, uncomfortable thing that makes you feel that dysphoric feeling.
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That makes so much sense.
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So if you force yourself to do some form of exercise, even just for a minute, even for three minutes, even for 10 minutes,
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it paves the way for you to now really magnify all of the beautiful
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and wonderful and comfortable things that follow it because you got the discomfort out of the way.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Doing Hard Things Rewires Your Brain”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: uncomfortable, endorphin, brain, opioid, feeling. This video has 40 sentences and 488 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:56. The speaker talks at a natural 166 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| endorphin noun | /ɛnˈdɔ(ɹ)fɪn/ | Any of a group of peptide hormones found in the mammalian brain that act as neurotransmitters and have properties similar to morphine. |
| opioid noun | /ˈəʊpiɔɪd/ | Any of the natural substances, such as an endorphin, released in the body in response to pain; an endogenous opioid. |
| dynorphin noun | Any of a class of opioid peptides that arise from the precursor protein prodynorphin | |
| receptor noun | /ɹɪˈsɛp.tə/ | A protein on a cell wall that binds with specific molecules so that they can be absorbed into the cell in order to control certain functions. |
| dysphoric adjective | Pertaining to dysphoria, or of being in a state of dysphoria. | |
| neurochemical adjective | Of or pertaining to neurochemistry, the study of the chemical basis of nerve and brain activity | |
| uncomfortableness noun | Discomfort, especially uneasiness associated with awkwardness, embarrassment, or self-consciousness. | |
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| endogenous adjective | /ɛnˈdɑ.d͡ʒə.nəs/ | Produced, originating or growing from within. |
| exogenous adjective | /ɛkˈsɑ.d͡ʒə.nəs/ | Produced or originating outside of the referent organism. |
| magnify verb | /ˈmæɡnɪfaɪ/ | To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God). |
| morphine noun | /ˈmɔɹˌfin/ | A crystalline alkaloid (4,5-epoxy-17-methyl-7,8-didehydromorphinan-3,6-diol), extracted from opium, the salts of which are soluble in water and are used as… |
| neurotransmitter noun | Any substance, such as acetylcholine or dopamine, responsible for sending nerve signals across a synapse between two neurons. | |
| sensitization noun | The process of making something sensitive. | |
| vigorous adjective | /ˈvɪɡəɹəs/ | Physically strong and active. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| push past verb | To rudely force one's way in front of another. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: endogenous /ɛnˈdɑ.d͡ʒə.nəs/, exogenous /ɛkˈsɑ.d͡ʒə.nəs/
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 endorphin, opioid, dynorphin.
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.