Shadowing Practice: Hobbies: Your Best Defense Against Brain Rot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

The average person now spends seven hours a day staring at their screens.

⏸ Paused

Speed:

340 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

The average person now spends seven hours a day staring at their screens.

But that level of consumption doesn't just steal your time and your life.

It actually rewires your brain,

shortening your attention span and making you reach for your phone the millisecond that you start to feel bored.

20 years ago, if you asked someone what their hobbies were,

they could probably tell you all sorts of things.

Dance classes, maybe they're into gardening or crochet,

or they really enjoy volunteering at their local community centre.

But these days, I've noticed that when I ask people what their hobbies are,

they don't really know how to respond.

They're like, hmm, what are my hobbies?

Social media has trained our brains to crave quick dopamine hits,

and anything slower will almost certainly feel really dull at first.

But hobbies can actually retrain your brain to be able to focus and enjoy the real world.

If you're new here, I'm Izzy,

a mum, tech founder, and Cambridge trained doctor,

and on this channel we explore these strategies and mindsets to help you create your dream life.

So in this video, I'll be walking you through exactly why hobbies are more important than ever in this day and age,

the neuroscience behind how hobbies can actually heal your brain rot from social media,

and then some frameworks around how to choose hobbies that really nourish you and bring joy to your life.

And finally, I'll go over the four categories of hobbies,

and I'll give you a whole bunch of ideas in each of these categories

so that you can maybe choose a few to experiment with.

As a companion to this video,

I've made a completely free list of all the hobbies that I'm talking about,

along with some journaling prompts and questions to guide you along the way.

So if you'd like a copy,

feel free to check out the link in my description.

So how exactly are hobbies going to change our lives?

In 2023, scientists did a meta-analysis on 93,000 people across different countries around the world.

And what they found consistently across all populations was that hobbies make people feel better in terms of their mood,

they feel happier, they're less depressed,

they're actually physically healthier, and they also feel more satisfaction with their life.

And they even noticed that some specific types of hobbies,

such as creating art or learning a musical instrument can literally increase the volume of your brain and improve your memory,

potentially even reducing your risk of developing dementia down the line.

And so here's how hobbies can literally help to heal your brain rot,

fix your attention span, and also help you to enjoy real life again.

We sometimes joke about social media shortening out attention spans,

how people in Gen Z or even Gen Alpha have the attention span of a goldfish now,

but beyond all the jokes,

actually the science is showing that this is actually true.

Because when we consume lots of rapid fragmented content on platforms like TikTok or Snapchat,

our brains initially get overwhelmed and hyper-stimulated,

but then they start to rewire.

And studies done exploring this relationship between social media usage and cognitive function have found that it reduces our memory,

we lose cognitive control, and it literally erodes our ability to stay focused on something.

And beyond social media just rotting our attention spans,

it's also rotting our ability to enjoy life.

You've probably heard of social media addiction and dependence,

but have you heard of digital anhedonia?

Digital anhedonia can be defined as the reduced ability to find enjoyment in real world experiences after prolonged digital saturation and stimulation.

And this is literally because social media is rewiring their brain's reward system.

But the amazing thing about our neurobiology and really everything in the human body is that it's governed by something called homeostasis.

This is the process through which our body regulates and balances all the systems using feedback loops.

So in our brain, we have dopamine receptors,

which receive the signals from dopamine being released in our brain.

And so in the case of social media,

if there's a huge flood of dopamine,

suddenly there's a huge amount of stimulation on those receptors.

But what the brain does to restore this yin-yang balance is

that then it starts to down-regulate the receptors and becomes less sensitive to that dopamine.

That means that even if there is the same stimulus,

there isn't quite the same feeling of reward anymore.

The problem happens when you switch off social media

because your brain has literally recalibrated its set point for what

it's expecting in terms of dopamine in order to feel a sense of enjoyment or reward.

And then when you get back to something like taking a peaceful walk in the park or reading a book,

those don't produce such a massive surge of dopamine.

And so they don't feel rewarding, they feel boring.

There's an interesting comparison with let's say quitting smoking.

So when I was training and then working as a doctor,

one of the things

that we would really focus on is how to help support patients to develop health forming habits in their life.

And so one example is quitting smoking.

For people who are addicted to cigarettes,

often they also feel the sense of a void where when they've removed this unhealthy habit,

suddenly they're like, okay, they get this feeling or this trigger where they want to reach for a cigarette.

And they're like, wait, but I'm quitting smoking now.

I'm no longer a smoker.

So what do I do?

And they face this void.

And so then as physicians,

one of the things that we can suggest to them is to think of some replacement for the cigarette.

So it's like, okay, like next time,

if you're feeling like having a cigarette,

where can you re-divert that energy?

So instead of trying to block that energy completely, you're just re-diverting it.

A common suggestion actually was for them to get some little lollipops,

like sugar-free xylitol lollipops, which they could reach for instead of reaching for a cigarette.

And what this did was a couple of things.

Firstly, it gave them something to do in that time.

Secondly, it also semi-mimicked a little bit of the reason why they wanted to smoke a cigarette.

And yes, it's not going to be as stimulating as a cigarette itself,

but it almost gives them something to fill the void.

And so I've discovered that hobbies can be the same thing,

but for social media dependence,

Where if it's like, okay,

it's like the evening, I'm kind of bored,

100

I want to do something like scroll on Instagram.

101

It's like, okay, you know what?

102

Let me redirect that energy into a new hobby that I've chosen.

103

The beautiful thing about hobbies is that they give you a sense of dopamine,

104

but it's a slow dopamine and also serotonin.

105

An analogy I like is almost to think of hobbies as

106

a whole unprocessed food version of dopamine versus social media being a hyper stimulating junk food.

107

It links beautifully into a concept that the ancient Greeks are really invested in called eudaimonia.

108

Eudaimonia is this idea of human flourishing,

109

where we all reach our highest potential and enjoyment through living well and living a good life.

110

It's not a hedonic, superficial type of happiness,

111

but instead it's this meeting of a deeper sense of meaning and purpose and flow.

112

And so hobbies can be a great way of getting this kind of eudaimonic fix.

113

So now I've given you my manifesto on why hobbies are so important,

114

more important than ever, and how they can literally heal your brain rot from the inside out using neuroscience.

115

Let's talk about how to choose your hobbies.

116

So rewinding a little bit,

117

about five months ago, I realized that I didn't really have any hobbies.

118

And this was kind of sad.

119

To give myself grace, I had a baby about eight months ago.

120

And so this was about three or four months postpartum where I was just getting back into my usual routines.

121

And then I was like, you know what?

122

I kind of want to like do something for me.

123

And I was like, wait, hang on.

124

What do I want to do for me?

125

What even are my hobbies?

126

And I realized I had replaced a lot of the hobbies that I used to have,

127

like either as a kid or in school or at university with either working,

128

doing something productive, such as like working out, or scrolling my phone.

129

What's up with that?

130

And so then I wanted to develop some kind of framework for thinking about which hobbies that I actually wanted to pursue.

131

The most basic filter is just thinking, what would I enjoy?

132

What would create joy for me right now to do?

133

The first theory that I want to dive into is the effort recovery theory.

134

Essentially, we can broadly divide the things that we do in our lives into two main categories,

135

things that require effort and output from us,

136

and things that help us to recover and refill the well.

137

For most people, they'd place things like work or like hustling into the output category where they're outputting energy,

138

both physical and mental, into this thing.

139

And on the other side,

140

there's recovery where you're inputting back into yourself,

141

you're resting, you're refilling the well.

142

Business psychologist, Joe Wintle, says that hobbies are really great actually for this recovery mode

143

and came up with four key questions to help us to choose a hobby to really nourish us.

144

Firstly, there's psychological detachment from work.

145

So does it help me to disconnect?

146

And also help us to get into a flow state,

147

which is where you're completely immersed in what you're doing and fully in the zone.

148

Secondly is relaxation.

149

Does it feel enjoyable and help me to feel good?

150

Thirdly is mastery.

151

Does it help me get a sense of accomplishment and progress?

152

And finally, does it give me a sense of control and agency outside of work?

153

One other thing I've been thinking about a lot recently is hobby grindification.

154

Because I've been noticing this almost pressure to turn everything into a side hustle or make everything productive.

155

And so I'd like to just say this,

156

you don't have to turn your hobbies into side hustles

157

and you don't even have to put it on social media or share it anywhere.

158

A large part of the joy of hobbies is just being able to do them for their own sake.

159

And

160

so for me, I've been on a little bit of a journey rediscovering hobbies in my own life after becoming a mum.

161

Here are four key categories of hobbies and I would actually recommend having probably a reasonable spread across the categories if possible.

162

And so I'll just give you a whole bunch of ideas to see if there's anything that sparks your interest.

163

And what I would really recommend doing here is running tiny experiments on these.

164

So for me, for example,

165

when I was getting back into the whole hobbies thing,

166

I decided, okay, I might wanna try Shaolin Kung Fu,

167

Latin salsa, Chinese calligraphy, maybe I'll try some pottery making and painting,

168

all of these things.

169

And I was just like, you know what?

170

I'll just try it out,

171

just commit for like one or two sessions to go

172

and see how it feels and then move on and just keep doing that until I find ones that stick.

173

So for example, things like Shaolin Kung Fu didn't really stick this time,

174

but something like Chinese calligraphy,

175

I was like, oh, I really enjoy this.

176

I can see myself doing this for longer.

177

And so then I have just continued.

178

The four categories of hobbies are creative, intellectual, wellbeing, and connection.

179

And let's dive into some of these examples.

180

Creative hobbies aren't just for creative people.

181

Even if you think your creativity sucks and is limited to drawing a stick,

182

man, there are so many incredible creative hobbies you can dive into and find genuine enjoyment from.

183

When I was a child at school,

184

my art teacher told me that I was bad at art.

185

I remember that I was doing a painting

186

and I had mixed a bunch of colours together and had gone this kind of shade of like brownie,

187

greenie, murky kind of colour.

188

And I was struggling to get the paint colour I wanted.

189

And she said to me,

190

you've made a real meal of that, haven't you?

191

She wasn't wrong.

192

I had made a real meal of it.

193

And she gave me a bad grade in art class because my art didn't look how it was supposed to look.

194

I was not great objectively at making things look true to life.

195

However, this narrative stuck with me for so long where I thought,

196

okay, I'm not a creative person.

197

I'm bad at art.

198

But then it's like, okay,

199

what does it mean to be bad at art to not be a creative person?

200

That's actually just patently untrue.

201

Every single human being on the planet has a creative spark and energy within them that's just waiting to come out.

202

It doesn't matter what the end piece looks like.

203

What matters is the creative act of actually showing up and doing the thing.

204

So I wanted to just share that because I feel like a lot of people have this where they think,

205

oh, I'm bad at this thing.

206

I'm bad at this hobby,

207

so therefore I shouldn't do it.

208

I actually think that that's not the point at all.

209

So creative hobbies include things like art.

210

So painting, drawing, scrapbooking, things like calligraphy.

211

So for me, I've been actually doing Chinese calligraphy specifically,

212

but this could be any kind.

213

Pottery, whether that's actually throwing the pottery and doing the whole like glazing and everything,

214

or just painting it.

215

Creating things like videos, whether that's YouTube videos or like more cinematic videos,

216

or just like videos of beautiful things.

217

Photography is a beautiful art form.

218

And I found that whenever I've tried to get more into photography,

219

I noticed beauty and the things around me even more.

220

This can also include graphic design,

221

baking or cooking, or even things like gardening.

222

So in lockdown, I actually did a gardening project for about a year and a half.

223

I literally dug up our lawn and grew an organic veggie patch with loads of organic fruits and vegetables.

224

It was maybe a bit of a nightmare for my mum because the lawn was ruined,

225

but it was a very interesting hobby to have.

226

You might be interested in interior design or flower arrangement or music,

227

such as singing or playing an instrument or even composing or producing or things like writing,

228

whether that's fiction and creative stories,

229

or just expressing your reflections on the world.

230

But as much as I enjoy and love writing,

231

one of the things

232

that I often like to do is to make it effortless to get the ideas to start to flow.

233

And sometimes I'll find that my brain wants to work faster than my fingers can literally type.

234

And that's where I like to use Whisperflow,

235

who are actually very kindly sponsoring today's video.

236

It's essentially a voice-first writing tool that works across both Mac and Windows.

237

So now whenever I start to feel that I want to get my thoughts out quicker into my computer,

238

I can use flow to speak into my computer instead.

239

And what it does is it transcribes what I say

240

and automatically edits or like neatens up what I said as I go.

241

That means all my filler words or pauses or ums

242

or ahs or like rambling thoughts get turned into a nice sentence that is written clearly.

243

Because one common issue I've run into with just normal voice dictation before I was using Whisperflow was

244

that it would also transcribe all of the errors in my speech.

245

One thing I found really helpful is how it can adapt depending on what kind of writing I'm going for.

246

This means that things like the grammar,

247

the sentence structure, are already suitable for whatever use case that I want to use it for.

248

And so that's helped to save me quite a bit of time.

249

So if you want to try Whisperflow,

250

I've put the link in my description down below,

251

and you can also use my code for an extra 30 days free.

252

Now let's get back into the video.

253

The second category is intellectual input.

254

If you've ever felt a little bit lost for feeling that sense of progress ever ever since you left school or uni,

255

and I can definitely relate to that.

256

This section might be for you because intellectual input doesn't actually need to stop when formal education ends.

257

And in fact, this time you're going to have

258

so much more fun because you get to choose exactly what you want to learn and follow your heart.

259

This category includes reading, so any kind of reading,

260

whether that's fiction, nonfiction, anything that you enjoy and feel drawn to.

261

It also includes learning.

262

This could mean learning a language or learning about history or philosophy or any topic that instinctively draws your interest.

263

One thing I would say here as well is to not only choose learning about topics

264

that you think or you judge to be useful for yourself,

265

but just things that you intuitively feel a resonance or interest in,

266

because this will make it way more accessible for you to get into a flow state

267

and actually really enjoy what you're doing.

268

And consistently they've found that engagement with your hobby is actually more predictive of all the benefits of it than anything else.

269

This kind of learning can take the form of courses,

270

of books, classes, lessons, all that kind of thing.

271

Another input is traveling, absorbing a new place,

272

a new culture, a new maybe cuisine.

273

And one thing I love about traveling is it gives you a new perspective on life,

274

a completely different lens through which you're kind of having a peek and you're like,

275

oh, that's how they do things over here.

276

This is the feeling, the vibe,

277

the way that they hold themselves in this space.

278

The next category of hobbies is wellbeing.

279

And this includes physical, mental, and spiritual.

280

So some ideas include dancing.

281

Maybe you want to connect with your body and move it in a way that feels fun,

282

that feels good.

283

There's social dancing.

284

So I really enjoyed doing Latin salsa back at university,

285

which was like a partner style salsa dancing with lots of spins.

286

That was super fun.

287

Or maybe you prefer to do like solo dancing or more like kind of K-pop style,

288

hip hop style, or even something which I discovered a couple of years ago is this idea of ecstatic dance,

289

where they DJ an ecstatic dance session where you really connect with yourself

290

and you dance as if literally no one is watching,

291

no one is judging and fully express yourself and move in whatever way feels good.

292

You could also maybe get into yoga or Pilates.

293

I love yoga and I do it multiple times a week.

294

One of my favorite places is my yoga studio.

295

It could include things like gym or running,

296

hiking, walking, swimming, or things like martial arts,

297

where there's a combination of the physical and also the skill.

298

Another skill and physical combination is rock climbing.

299

On the mental and spiritual side,

300

maybe you could explore things like meditation,

301

which over the last several years of my life has completely turned it around.

302

And if you're new to meditation and have no idea where to start,

303

I've actually created a completely free meditation starter pack.

304

I'll leave a link down in my description below if you'd like to check it out.

305

You could also pick up things like journaling.

306

I find that journaling is one of my favorite hobbies that I love to go back to time and time again,

307

because it helps me to really connect with myself and understand myself more deeply.

308

And finally, something like breathwork,

309

which I've been personally finding really revealing recently with having significant emotional releases through doing breathwork.

310

The final category is connection.

311

This is all about connecting with other people, with friends, family.

312

It could mean coming up with a certain set of rituals or specific meetups that you do with people.

313

For example, my husband and I,

314

every single week, it's already pre-blocked in the calendar,

315

we have regular date nights.

316

And so we go to a new restaurant

317

that we've been really wanting to try and mindfully enjoy the food and then also really spend that time connecting.

318

This could also mean planning workout or hobby classes with a friend or meeting people there,

319

such as like run clubs or like pottery classes.

320

One thing I've been really enjoying recently is hosting people more regularly for dinners or lunches.

321

Or you could even start up a creative club

322

or a book club where you invite people over to do some kind of activity together.

323

Essentially, this is all about recurring,

324

regular touch points, so weekly dinner or like a hot girl walk that you go on.

325

It's all good and well watching videos like this,

326

which talk about how to improve your life,

327

how to make changes that move you closer towards your higher self.

328

But the most important thing is actually turn these ideas and this inspiration into action.

329

So in every single video,

330

I like to invite you guys to come up with two action points right after watching the video

331

and write them down somewhere.

332

And I will even suggest one,

333

potentially try switching out at least 30 minutes this week to

334

spend on a hobby instead of scrolling in your phone and see how you feel after doing it.

335

If you liked this video,

336

I think you might enjoy this one over here where I

337

walk you through my complete three-step butterfly framework on how to completely reinvent your identity to change your life.

338

As always, thank you so much for watching,

339

take care of yourselves and remember that the journey is the destination.

340

I'll see you in the next video, bye.

TRENDING

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.

☕ Buy us a coffee

ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏

Donate via PayPal

ShadowingEnglish.com – English Shadowing Practice

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: Hobbies: Your Best Defense Against Brain Rot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Popular

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: Hobbies: Your Best Defense Against Brain Rot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Download App

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?