Shadowing Practice: How to Calm the Voice Inside | Eckhart Tolle Teachings - Learn English Speaking with Video

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But what has happened through the gradual evolution of thinking is that now humans tend to overthink.

There is a lot of not only unnecessary thinking that generates unnecessary

and in many cases non-existent problems such as when you lie awake at night in bed and start worrying.

It generates a lot of unnecessary unhappiness.

So people don't realize that a significant part of

the unhappiness in their lives is actually generated by unnecessary negative

often destructive mind activity and they don't even know it.

Mindfulness is first of all

discovering the simple fact that there is a voice in your head

that continuously comments on your life or on what's happening around you.

It's the self-talk and everybody knows what the self-talk is in that you talk to yourself.

Sometimes you talk to yourself in the first person, some people talk to themselves in the second person, you.

So you can get annoyed with yourself and then you say, you shouldn't have done that.

And then you have another thought that says, yes, but I couldn't help it.

And you might even get a third voice come in, whatever it says to this, why can't I get out of my self-talk?

That's self-talk too.

But it's an amazing first thing what I call the first awakening,

spiritual awakening, is something very basic and something very simple.

It's a discovery that there is a voice in your head that always talks to you, mostly silently.

if it talks out aloud then you're continuously

and there's nobody around then you are considered insane but

and that's only if it's loud but most people have

that inside their heads and they are not considered insane it's considered normal

but there's not such a big difference between the two

and sometimes when you

when you listen to them there might be a man walking in the street muttering

and you say oh he's really insane but it might be

that you are doing the same

but it's just not out allowed it's in your head why didn't i should have said

that why didn't i say

that next time he does it i'm not exactly know what i'm going to reply

and it goes on and on or you lie awake at night and start worrying,

you wake up and oh my god, what's going to happen?

What if that doesn't work?

And then that goes wrong?

And what if he does that and all?

And then you go into it.

You get drawn one thought leads to another thought and another thought.

Oh my God.

And then the body cannot distinguish between an actual reality,

an event that's happening in the real life and what your mind is saying.

So when you have fearful thoughts, the body reacts to every fearful thought,

but the and that's an emotion, the body reacts with an emotion, the emotion you feel in your body.

The body cannot distinguish between an actual event and a thought.

So when you think fearful thoughts, the emotions you feel are the emotions that are saying I am in danger.

There is an actual danger here.

So you feel the emotion of fear, anxiety.

You might feel agitated and it's not only not pleasant

if you indulge in that kind of useless dysfunctional destructive thinking

year after year after year it has its effect on the body and it decreases the ability of the body to

have the energy to fight disease.

Even mainstream medicine is discovering the connection between your state of mind and your state of health.

And so gradually we are seeing in the past they denied it completely, they only looked at your body and not only that,

they didn't just look at the totality of the body, even within the body, they just looked at one particular symptom, what's wrong with that particular organ.

And you have, of course, in mainstream medicine you have specialists.

I'm a specialist for the liver, a specialist for this and this and that.

Not only not taking into account the totality of the body

but more importantly not taking into account the totality of the person which includes the physical body and the mind.

So it's vitally important to discover first of all that there is a voice in your head

that indulges in self-talk most of the time and for many people interestingly enough

that self-talk for many people is not always negative

but for many people there's it it is more negative than positive a good event

that happened yesterday a nice you might have gone to a nice reunion

or you went out into nature and you witnessed a beautiful sunset.

Okay, you can remember it today and think that was a beautiful sunset or we had a nice talk yesterday.

But you can't do that much thinking about a nice event.

But the mind, when there's something negative that happens yesterday, somebody offended you or didn't give you the attention that you needed,

that you you want it from him, then you can start thinking of how, oh my God, what he did.

He's really.. next time he just said, I'm going to say that, or he's really sure.

Why doesn't he.. you can go on for a long time dwelling on something negative much longer than dwelling on something positive.

So seemingly a negative event is much more food for useless mind activity than a positive event.

And this is why for many people a significant percentage of their mind activity is negative.

For some people it is almost 100% negative, but it is unlikely that these people would get a job in this company.

And I mean that because your predominant state of consciousness,

your predominant mental emotional state, there's a certain correlation between who you associate with,

where you find yourself, and even what kind of things happen to you.

is a correlation which is not always immediately recognizable

but there is a correlation between one's a person's predominant mental emotional state and who they are with who their friends are

what where they work and even what happens to them so

if you are if you are in a very negative state a long time, you tend to attract also negative events,

but you can only have to find that out for yourself.

I'm not saying believe me.

I know it from my own life because when I first discovered this, I was still very young,

I discovered that there is a correlation between my mind activity and what happens to me,

I found a book and that somebody, several books that somebody left with us when I was 17

and there for the first time I read about a person's mind

and I suddenly realized my mind was predominantly negative

because I was a very unhappy child and

so my childhood was not pleasant and

so the initial conditioning of my life was that my mind was continuously commenting and saying

how bad my life was and whenever something bad happened to me i had a phrase

that would occur again in my mind

that of course bad things always happen to you don't they

they're bound to happen to you it always happens to you

so i was talking to myself and saying that bad things would always happened to me and they did.

So you can discover first the spiritual awakening is to discover

that there is continuous mind activity and for some people it's the discovery

that a significant part of their mind activity is negative.

But the vital thing is to discover

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that there is this continuous talk in my head

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which is called norm is considered the normal human state

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and of course you cannot abolish thinking of course there will be thinking

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but the question is is there an awareness behind the thinking

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if and if you can become aware that you are indulging

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or caught up in in that useless mind activity and you suddenly become aware of perhaps certain repetitive thoughts

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that tend to re-occur in your mind again and again.

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You might see it in others too, eat more easily in others.

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When you go for your Thanksgiving dinner, I think is it next week, you will meet your family members or relatives

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and some of you may realize you already know what they are going to say this year

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because it's the same thing they said last year and five years

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and ten years ago and if they have negative judgments about you

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or somebody else then it's the same thing you will hear again next week

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when you go to them so it's it's easier to see how others are caught up in repetitive thought forms,

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not as easy to see it in oneself.

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This is why there's a saying that self-knowledge is the most difficult knowledge.

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It's easier to see others.

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But if you can discover, even in the midst, perhaps, in the moment of a certain thought appearing in your mind,

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realizing, oh, that thought is, I've had this thought for years, it comes again and again and again.

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And so there is an observing presence, and from there you get, and that observing presence isn't a thought,

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it's just the ability to realize that there is a voice in your head and that there are thoughts.

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And you realize that some of those thoughts are negative,

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And many of those thoughts actually are not only unnecessary but make your life very difficult, such as worry.

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So most people live with what I call a cluttered mind.

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A cluttered mind means

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they are completely unaware that there's a continuous stream of mental commentary

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that it goes and wherever they meet somebody and immediately certain judgments form

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and everything they feel they need to immediately adopt a position

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towards it immediately i'm against it i just i I like that.

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So immediately adapt a mental position and being identified with one's mental position, which is a thought.

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So if you discover within yourself that a lot of the time you are in a state of lack, of insufficiency, of not enough,

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and you feel that the answer to the remedy is to be active in this world

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and achieve and do as much as possible, then you'll probably find that ultimately that is not the answer to your state of lack.

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In order to transcend, to go beyond your state of lack, of neediness, of not enough,

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spiritual practice and spiritual realization is necessary.

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Focus on the realization of being.

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It's only there that you can go beyond that state of Blackridge's ego,

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go within and discover who or what you are beyond the person.

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Thank you.

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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

This video is a goldmine for English learners looking to refine their speaking skills—especially if you’re into the shadowing technique. The slow, deliberate pace of Eckhart Tolle’s speech makes it easy to follow, while his natural conversational tone helps you mimic real-life communication. Practicing with this content isn’t just about learning words; it’s about understanding how to convey complex ideas smoothly. Plus, the topic of "calming the inner voice" is relatable, so you’ll stay engaged as you practice shadow speak. Whether you’re using a shadowing site or just repeating lines aloud, this video trains your brain to keep up with fluent speech and your mouth to form natural sounds.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Let’s break down key structures to boost your speaking:

"There is a lot of not only unnecessary thinking...": The "not only... but (also)" structure adds depth. Practice saying, "There’s not only noise outside but also a storm coming" to master it.
"You might even get a third voice come in...": "Might even" softens a statement. Try, "You might even find a new café downtown" to sound more natural.
"The body cannot distinguish between an actual reality and what your mind is saying.": "Cannot distinguish between X and Y" is useful for comparisons. Use it in, "I can’t distinguish between this coffee and that one—they taste the same."

Common Pronunciation Traps

Watch out for these tricky words in the video:

"Dysfunctional": Pronounce it "dis-FUNK-shuh-nul"—don’t rush the "sh" sound. Misplacing stress here can make it hard to understand.
"Agitated": The "tate" part is "tayt," not "tut." Say "AG-uh-tay-ted" to keep it smooth.
"Mindfulness": Stress the first syllable: "MINE-dful-ness." Many learners overemphasize "ful," but keeping it light sounds better.

Using a shadowing site to repeat these words will help you nail the rhythm. Remember, shadowspeak is about copying not just words, but the flow—so focus on how Tolle pauses and stresses key terms. With practice, you’ll turn these traps into strengths!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is actually generated · are considered · are not considered
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has happened · I've had
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	correlation which is · position, 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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How to Calm the Voice Inside | Eckhart Tolle Teachings - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?