Shadowing Practice: How to Feel Better Fast: The 5 Things That Shift Your Mood Instantly - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
881 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Today, on the Mel Robbins Podcast, five simple things that shift your mood instantly and make you feel better now.
2
Okay, before we jump into this extraordinary episode, my team was showing me something.
3
They brought up a lot of emotion.
4
58% of you who watch the Mel Robbins Podcast here on YouTube are not subscribers.
5
It would make me feel so supported, seen, and grateful if you would subscribe.
6
If that subscribe button is lit up, it means you're not a subscriber.
7
Will you help me achieve my goal of getting that number to 50%?
8
It's free.
9
That way you're not going to miss a thing.
10
And most importantly, it's one way that you can tell me
11
and the team here at the Mel Robbins Podcast
12
that you love all the content that we're putting here on YouTube for free.
13
This episode is going to be one of your all-time favorites.
14
I can just feel it.
15
So let's jump into it.
16
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast.
17
I'm really glad that you're here today, because it's always an honor to spend this time together and to be with you.
18
And if you're a new listener or somebody shared this episode with you, I just want to take a moment and welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family.
19
Now we're going to be talking about how to feel better fast.
20
And the fact that you hit play on an episode
21
that has that title tells me that you've been dealing with a lot.
22
And I can say that with a lot of confidence because something recently happened and it blew me away.
23
So I was flying home to see my folks in Michigan
24
and I had a little bit of spare time and I decided, okay, I'm just gonna post a question on the stories on Instagram.
25
And the question was super simple.
26
It was just, what do you need help with right now?
27
And then something happened that was shocking.
28
Over half a million people responded.
29
let me just read you some of the words
30
that kept coming up over and over
31
and over again anxious irritated tired stuck flat oh my god
32
flat that's how i was feeling last week sluggish fried self critical i was
33
so shocked by how many of you responded
34
and how consistent the words were
35
that you were using to describe what you needed help with
36
and i was like okay we got to do something about this
37
because you deserve to feel better and you can feel better.
38
And so here's what my team and I did.
39
We went through all of these responses
40
and we've analyzed what are the top five feelings that are showing up right now the most in your life.
41
And then we dug back in to the experts
42
that have appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast looking for the best advice to help you reset this feeling.
43
And so we're going to go through the five most common feelings.
44
The first being just feeling tired, flat, sluggish.
45
Oh my gosh.
46
The second one is feeling stuck, like you're stuck in a funk or you're stuck in a bad mood.
47
The third was brain fried.
48
You're overstimulated.
49
You're not sure how to like get the energy or the focus back.
50
You just kind of feel blech in the brain.
51
The fourth one was just tired.
52
Tired of being responsible for everything, holding it all together, being so hard on yourself.
53
And the fifth feeling was really heavy.
54
And here's the deal.
55
The advice that you're about to hear is so powerful and simple, and you can use it as soon as you're done listening.
56
And in fact, the last piece of expert advice that I'm going to share with you today is just downright magical.
57
It's one of my most favorite tools that has ever been shared on this podcast.
58
So let's start with the first feeling that so many of you told me that you're dealing with, and that's just that you're exhausted.
59
You feel flat.
60
You feel sluggish.
61
You don't feel like yourself.
62
This is that period in your life where you're just like, God, how do I get my mojo back?
63
I'm tired of being tired.
64
This is so relatable.
65
This was me yesterday.
66
I just hit the wall at work yesterday.
67
And then I remembered this advice from Dr. Wendy Suzuki, because what Dr. Suzuki is about to tell you is
68
that the fastest way to change how you feel is to change what your body is doing.
69
She says that one of the simplest tools for helping you shift out of that sluggish blah feeling
70
and get some energy moving again is to get yourself moving again.
71
And it only takes 10 minutes.
72
And before you hear what she has to say, I want to explain who Dr. Suzuki is.
73
Dr. Suzuki is a world-renowned neuroscientist and the dean of the College of Arts and Science at New York University.
74
She's known for her groundbreaking research on memory, brain plasticity, and the simple things you can do every day to improve your focus, learning, memory, and brain power.
75
She's also pioneering research on how moving your body can improve your brain health.
76
And the advice she's about to give you, I took this advice yesterday here at work in our Boston studios in between tapings.
77
And oh my God, it changed everything.
78
Here is Dr. Wendy Suzuki talking about what happens to your mood when you take a simple 10-minute walk.
79
Every single time you move your body, you are releasing literally a flood of neurochemicals in your brain.
80
That is the physical thing that happens.
81
And I'm not talking about run a marathon.
82
I'm talking about even taking a walk.
83
A 10-minute walk gets that flood of neurochemicals going.
84
Is it different if you do get your heart rate up?
85
Yes, it is.
86
But the power starts with a 10-minute walk.
87
The neurochemical flood starts with a 10-minute walk.
88
What is in that flood of neurochemicals?
89
Dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline.
90
endorphins, growth factors.
91
The first three, dopamine, serotonin, and neurodegenerative, what's that going to do?
92
It's going to make you feel great.
93
Well, you've just given your brain this flood of neurochemicals that I like to call a neurochemical bubble bath for your brain.
94
And I love that image because if you move regularly, think of it as a regular bubble bath for your brain,
95
these neurochemicals that are making you feel good, the growth factors go to your hippocampus, that is what's growing those brand new hippocampal cells.
96
The power of exercise comes from that neurochemical bubble bath.
97
I love that image.
98
I love the image of being outside for just a 10 minute walk.
99
Every one of us can find 10 minutes and you can imagine that flood happening.
100
And I also, I personally am a bath person.
101
So when you say bubbles and like a bath in my brain and bubbles are fluffy, and I don't know that I wanted a body part to be big and fluffy,
102
but now I do want a big and fluffy brain, that a 10 minute walk at a minimum causes that flood of really positive chemicals.
103
And this goes back to what you were saying, which is neuroplasticity and growing your brain works in the positive.
104
Yes.
105
And not doing these things, I suppose, works in the negative.
106
Well, the negative comes from the most common negative brain plasticity drivers.
107
Very familiar to all of us.
108
Stress, chronic stress, chronic anxiety are two things that will cause retraction.
109
So is the flood of all of those like superpower, do you call them chemicals or what are they called?
110
Neurochemicals, neurotransmitters.
111
Gotcha.
112
So does the flood of all those neurochemicals relieve anxiety?
113
Is that why taking a 10-minute walk, if you're feeling anxious, can make you feel better?
114
It's because of the release of the neurochemicals.
115
Yes, yeah.
116
The most common drugs that one gets prescribed for depression or anxiety are releasing forms of noradrenaline and dopamine and serotonin.
117
So this is a natural way to get that.
118
It's free.
119
You don't even have to change your clothes.
120
So that is just the magical power of moving your body for your brain.
121
I love that.
122
How does exercise improve focus?
123
Improved focus is the most common positive effect that has been reported from studies of exercise on the brain.
124
Easiest to find, improved focus.
125
We know it's affecting the prefrontal cortex.
126
And the mechanism of that and what exactly is happening is less clear than some of the other brain areas.
127
We think that growth factors are also involved and that it involves not growth of new brain cells in the prefrontal cortex, but new synapses.
128
You get an immediate positive effect of focus from that same 10-minute walk.
129
And with long-term regular exercise, your baseline levels of focus and attention go up.
130
And that's where you expect to get real physical change in your brain.
131
Wow.
132
I personally notice an increase in energy, which I always find to be weird
133
because I'm usually dragging myself to the gym or dragging myself out of bed to go on a walk or a hike.
134
But when I'm done, even though I'm tired, I feel this boost of energy.
135
Can you explain why exercise increases your energy?
136
One of my favorite findings is in groups that were assigned the exercise condition, the motivation to exercise increased in them.
137
So more exercise improves motivation to exercise.
138
And the energy piece that you're talking about is likely due to the flood of dopamine
139
and serotonin that go to your brain.
140
Do you feel more energized when you're happy and when the reward that you get with dopamine?
141
Yes, you are.
142
So I'm going to say that it's probably most likely due to those same neurochemicals we've been talking about.
143
And here's what I'm going to say.
144
It freaking works.
145
Because yesterday I was so sluggish, so burnt out, so tired.
146
I did not feel like myself.
147
And then I'm like, hold on a second.
148
I just need to take a 10-minute walk outside and then I'm going to get that bubble bath she's talking about.
149
And this bad mood is going to shake out of my body
150
and I'm gonna walk back into work feeling like a completely different person.
151
The research works.
152
And here's what I'm gonna say.
153
I get it.
154
If you're feeling sluggish, if you're tired, if everything feels like too much, just like it did for me yesterday, even the thought of taking a walk feels like too much.
155
I didn't wanna do it yesterday.
156
In fact, it wasn't even like really something that I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go for a walk.
157
The executive producer of the podcast, Tracy, said, you know, you really should go for a walk.
158
And I'm like, you're right, because Dr. Wendy Suzuki says that just 10 minutes gives you that bubble bath in your brain.
159
10 minutes is all you need to get the benefits.
160
10 minutes in that neurochemical, oh my gosh, of dopamine and serotonin.
161
She explained it better than I can, and she's the one that researches this stuff.
162
10 minutes is all you need to start pulling yourself out of that sluggish, blah, ugh, feeling.
163
And what happens after 10 minutes?
164
Well, I'll tell you what happened for me, and this is going to happen for you.
165
You'll feel a little more focused, a little more capable.
166
a little more energized.
167
And here's the best part.
168
You don't have to wait until the end of the day.
169
Whenever you feel like you've been run over by life, just push yourself out of that chair and go take a walk.
170
It'll give you the benefit of all this research.
171
And I will tell you, because I did this personally, you're gonna feel a hundred times better.
172
And since Dr. Suzuki is so incredible, I'm gonna have her stick around for the second most common thing
173
that so many of you wrote in and described about how you're feeling right now.
174
And one of you in particular used the words, I'm stuck in a fog right now.
175
You know, I'm in such a funk that I can't even see my way out.
176
And so that's a little bit different than just kind of being tired and sluggish during the day.
177
Like when you feel like you've been stuck in the fog,
178
it's almost like you're dragging your whole life as you're trying to walk through shoulder deep water.
179
Oh my gosh.
180
And maybe that's where you are.
181
You're getting through the day.
182
You're showing up at work.
183
You're answering the texts.
184
You're making the dinner.
185
You're getting through it.
186
But everything about life right now just feels kind of muted.
187
The things that you normally enjoy, they just don't hit the same.
188
Small tasks feel oddly hard.
189
Your brain just feels like it's working on a lower gear.
190
And it's probably affecting your sleep.
191
It's probably affecting how you feel about the people that you're around.
192
You get irritated.
193
You can't explain what's wrong.
194
You're not yourself and you haven't been yourself.
195
And yet you're still getting through the day and through your classes and doing what you need to do.
196
But my gosh, it's almost like you're watching life through a dirty window.
197
and the advice that Dr. Suzuki is about to give you is not gonna fix the big problems, but what it does instantly,
198
oh my gosh, what it does instantly is it's something you can do every morning
199
that snaps your brain and body with a jolt.
200
And that may sound abrupt, but you're gonna understand when you hear this advice
201
that a really great way to quickly clean the window and see things more clearly,
202
to snap yourself into the present moment is take a cold shower.
203
Dr. Suzuki's gonna explain the science, but when you step into a cold shower, holy cow, it's like, boom, your adrenaline turns on.
204
Whoa, your nervous system wakes up.
205
And all of that flooding that happens in your body just clears away the gunk
206
and allows you to shift your mood instantly.
207
Now for the last month, I'm going to confess something to you.
208
I've been experiencing this.
209
And so every single morning I take a cold shower.
210
I start with a warm shower because I got to wash my hair and I'm not that brutal.
211
I'm not stepping into an ice cold shower as the first thing.
212
I got to kind of ease my way into it.
213
I take my shower and then you know what I do?
214
I just rank that thing all the way back to cold and then I brace for impact.
215
And when that cold water hits you, it's literally as if you can feel the sludge moving from the top of your head down to your ankles.
216
I can only stand it for about 20 seconds
217
and then I got to step out
218
but those 20 seconds are good enough to completely 100% shift the state of my body and my mood.
219
So let's listen to Dr. Wendy Suzuki talking about this simple tool.
220
What I love to do to supercharge that adrenaline boost every morning is hot, cold contrast showers.
221
So I do my regular hot shower, but at the end, I push it all the way to maximum cold and boost.
222
Okay, it was hard the first time I did it.
223
But once you get used to it, that's a natural adrenaline boost.
224
And that is like, I need that.
225
If I forget, I go back into the shower.
226
No. I do.
227
I do go back into the shower to get it if I forget it.
228
Because you need to be up.
229
You need to be ready for that day.
230
And that, together with exercise, are really powerful ways to get that energy up.
231
So Dr. Suzuki, I want to stop you right there because that is a second huge free takeaway.
232
We talked about the 10 minute walk.
233
Yes.
234
We have talked about this flood of neurochemicals that you can get by moving your body.
235
Now you are talking about a habit
236
that you have as a neuroscientist where you end every shower by spinning the dial from that amazing,
237
steamy, awesome, warm shower.
238
Oh, I love that feeling.
239
Don't you start to feel a little tired?
240
You're like, oh, do I really want to get out of the shower?
241
And then Dr. Suzuki's like, what?
242
And she turns it up cold.
243
And now she's standing in freezing cold water.
244
How long do you stand there?
245
Yeah.
246
And do you actually let it hit your head or do you cheat like I do and you hit a shoulder?
247
So I let it hit everywhere.
248
But now I'm used to it.
249
The first time it was only a tiny little shoulder.
250
It doesn't go big enough.
251
But you get used to it.
252
And now it's longer.
253
I could do it much, much longer.
254
And now I'm much more sensitive because different places you take showers have different coldness of the water.
255
So yeah, I like it when places are really cold so I could really test myself.
256
Because the colder it is, the bigger adrenaline boost that you get.
257
And so now I'm sensitive to what that feels like in me.
258
So the cold doesn't bother me when I'm kind of addicted to.
259
What is the adrenaline that comes with it?
260
So for the person listening, if they wanted to try this, and they're going to do it today or first thing tomorrow morning, and you turn the shower to cold,
261
how long would you want them to try to stay in there?
262
And what does it feel like when that adrenaline rush hits?
263
Because I think when you do it the first time, your immediate reaction is get out of the shower.
264
Is that what you're waiting to feel?
265
Or is it the get out of the shower thing?
266
and then you stay for a second or two to feel this like, ah, hit your body.
267
Like, what are you looking for so the person listening can try this at home?
268
Yeah.
269
So it is a shock, as everybody imagined, the very first time.
270
And so you do feel shocked and you want to kind of try to stay as long as you could handle it.
271
But if you felt the shock, that's the point.
272
Get out, you know, dry yourself off.
273
that is going to last, I'm going to say easy, the rest of the morning.
274
You are going to feel that adrenaline.
275
I mean, that's why I do it.
276
If it only lasted for two seconds, I wouldn't bother to do it.
277
I do it because this is a boost of physiological adrenaline
278
that is natural from this cold and it stays in your system.
279
And I feel the energy difference when I do that.
280
I do too.
281
It absolutely works.
282
And here's the thing.
283
Like if you're going through a period of your life that's super challenging
284
and you don't have an option to just go out of office and take a week, two weeks off and just regroup,
285
this tool is an incredible way to support yourself in getting up, in shifting your mood, in shifting your body state so
286
that you get this boost of energy and you can move through your day.
287
And I love what she said about the fact that this is a natural adrenaline boost.
288
Because one of the things that we also do, you know, when you're in these periods is you drink like three extra cups of coffee
289
or you have a Diet Coke or you're pumping yourself up with caffeine
290
and all this other stuff and then you can't fall asleep.
291
Doing this natural adrenaline boost to tap into the energy that's in there that life has been tamping down is so effective.
292
And I know you may be thinking, well, Mel, this sounds just way too simple.
293
Have you ever tried a cold shower?
294
Because you wouldn't be saying this sounds too simple if you've tried a cold shower.
295
I promise you, if you feel crappy, flat, drained, sluggish, or just blah, just step in to the shower.
296
Instant mood boost.
297
I really want you to try this.
298
and I'm willing to place a bet that this is gonna work for you too.
299
And it will also probably work for someone else in your life that's not feeling like themselves right now.
300
Now we're gonna move on to the third feeling
301
that kept coming up over and over and over again from you and your fellow listeners, which is, you know what I need help with, Mel?
302
My brain is fried.
303
I know this feeling.
304
I always explain this like the drawbridge is not closing.
305
You know how on a drawbridge, both sides go up and then as it comes down, the sides connect.
306
When my brain is fried, whether it's because I've worked too much or I've been pushing myself too hard or I've been going through something,
307
it's almost like the drawbridge can't close.
308
I can't connect the dots.
309
I start a sentence, I can't finish the sentence.
310
I have a thought, then I forget the thought.
311
Make the appointment.
312
I forget the appointment.
313
I forget that it's my husband's birthday.
314
I drop the ball on a deadline.
315
You start to go like, what is wrong with me?
316
Is this hormones?
317
Is this life?
318
Is this just my brain?
319
Is this like something going on with my memory?
320
Well, it turns out that feeling mentally fried is what happens
321
when your brain has been taking in too much for too long.
322
Does that sound like you?
323
You're juggling too many things.
324
You've got too many open tabs.
325
You've got too many people needing something from you.
326
Too much scrolling, which is input.
327
Too much reacting, which is input.
328
Too much worrying, which is input.
329
Too much trying to keep up, which is input.
330
And at some point, your brain's just like, okay, we're done here.
331
We're done here.
332
And what happens is your attention starts to get weaker.
333
And suddenly, the simplest things feel hard, or you're rereading the same thing five times.
334
Or here's my favorite one.
335
How many times have you walked into a room and you're like, wait, why am I coming in here?
336
And then you walk out, And then you go, oh, oh, that's right.
337
I needed to get the scissors.
338
And then you go back in and you get halfway across the room and you go, wait a minute.
339
What am I looking for again?
340
Or this is another thing that happens for me.
341
This is signal number one that Mel Robbins has reached peak brain capacity.
342
I get irritated over the tiniest things.
343
Or I get upset with the nicest people.
344
And then I feel terrible. and it's the worst.
345
It's the worst when your poor brain is fried.
346
It's just been trying so hard to do everything and to file it all away and to keep you organized.
347
Oh my gosh, that brain of yours, wow, it's been working on overtime.
348
And look, you can tell yourself all you want, focus, try harder, get it together.
349
But maybe you don't need to focus harder.
350
maybe you need to change what your brain is looking at.
351
Isn't that kind of an interesting thought?
352
I mean, let me say that again.
353
You may not need to try harder.
354
In fact, you shouldn't.
355
Maybe you just need to change your focus for a second.
356
And this piece of advice comes from Dr. Adam Alter.
357
Dr. Alter is a renowned researcher and professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.
358
He earned his PhD in psychology from Princeton,
359
and a major part of his research focuses on how the environment around you shapes how you think,
360
how you behave, and how you feel.
361
Dr. Alter is going to explain how simply changing what you're looking at immediately changes how you feel.
362
You know, there's that famous, I think it's a Wayne Dwyer quote, when you change the way you look at the world, the world you look at changes.
363
And Dr. Adam Alter is here to teach you
364
that there's specific things to look at and focus on
365
that fundamentally change the way you feel in your body and the way your brain is able to work.
366
So let's take a listen to what he said when he was here on the Mel Robbins podcast.
367
A lot of my work focuses on how these different cues shape how we think, feel, and behave, and our welfare, our well-being.
368
A lot of the focus for me recently is what happens
369
when you go as far from screens as possible to natural environments, which we all sort of have the, I think general sense that that's good for us.
370
It's good to be in a natural environment, but the effects there are among the most profound I've ever seen in any research
371
that just spending a bit of time near a body of running water or hearing wind rustle through trees, that they have a huge effect on your welfare and it's worth doing.
372
What effect does it have on your welfare?
373
So one thing about the way we live our lives today in the modern era is that we are constantly sapped.
374
Our attention is sapped.
375
We're asked to pay huge amounts of very focused attention all the whether we're looking at screens, whether we're having extended work conversations, whether we're doing work.
376
And so by the end of the day, you're kind of depleted, depleted, depleted.
377
If you wear one of those watches that tracks your body battery, you see it just kind of goes down and down and down.
378
And that's a good metaphor for the way we live our lives.
379
It sums it up pretty well.
380
The thing about nature is that apart from actually being asleep, being in a natural environment is replenishing.
381
It basically turns that dial upside down.
382
And so your energy starts to climb again.
383
So it gives you back a lot of what is sapped by that very focused attention.
384
Because when you're in a natural environment, your attention is still grabbed by things.
385
You might hear a bird, you might hear the running water, you might look at trees, whatever it might be, looking at the ocean.
386
But that kind of less focused attention is really restorative.
387
And there's actually a whole body of research called attention restoration therapy
388
that focuses on exactly this idea that being in natural environments is one of the best forms of medicine we have.
389
So let's unpack that.
390
I think you said something about attention therapy.
391
Attention restoration therapy.
392
What is that?
393
Yeah, it's basically this idea that your attention is constantly being sapped.
394
It's being taken away.
395
And the kind of attention you have in a natural environment, which is not demanding, it's replenishing.
396
It's true.
397
It restores you, it brings you back.
398
It gives you something that you don't have.
399
I think the single most profound example of this for me was a study
400
that was done at a hospital on people who were recovering from surgery and they were randomly assigned to different rooms.
401
And some of the rooms looked out at a natural environment, the beautiful green lawn, some trees, and some of the rooms just where they happened to be in the building did not have that view.
402
They were looking out at another part of the building.
403
And they wanted to track how these people recovered from identical surgeries, depending on which room they happened to be assigned to.
404
And they found they needed like half as much pain medication.
405
They spent three days fewer in hospital recovering.
406
Just looking out at that natural environment was the best form of medicine there was.
407
So it's true, you know, I run maybe four or five days a week and I try to do it outside when I can.
408
And I know on some level that just feels good, but there's a huge amount of science behind that as well.
409
So what do you recommend for us to put into our lives?
410
Because we've had neuroscientists, medical doctors, sleep experts come on the show and talk about the importance of getting natural light first thing in the morning.
411
We've also had someone talk about if you're kind of burnt out
412
and you are having one of those moments where you just feel your energy draining,
413
even looking off at the distance out the window can help you restore your energy.
414
What are some of the takeaways or the science fact things
415
that people can implement in their lives to tap into this research?
416
Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is I ran yesterday in a forest and it was wonderful.
417
and there was running water, there were all these ingredients and it was incredibly restorative.
418
But as a runner, my instinct is to just keep going, which is how we live our lives, right?
419
You're doing something and you wanna keep going till it ends, till you finish doing it, till you can check it off.
420
And I had to push myself to stop for five minutes to sit on a rock
421
and just let the water go by.
422
And that was by far the most restorative, wonderful part of the day.
423
And I think there's something to that, this idea of purposely stopping yourself.
424
So I would say, whether you're in a big city whether you're not in a big city, find a little patch of natural environment.
425
And by the way, if you're in an apartment in a big urban environment, you don't have that option, even little trees, little plants that you have in the apartment,
426
the sound of a little fountain that you have with running water, that stands in for that experience too, is just spend say five minutes a day doing absolutely nothing but taking in,
427
drinking in that natural environment, even if it's a tiny one in your apartment.
428
If you can get out, all the better, but it's very important to do that, I think as a sort of daily practice.
429
Even just hearing him say, the sound of running water.
430
I mean, doesn't that just make you go, the sound of running water.
431
I want to underline that term that Dr. Atler just said, attention restoration therapy.
432
Dr. Alter's research has proven how attention restoration therapy works.
433
spending time in nature or simply being around greenery
434
or oh my gosh the sound of running water it can help restore your focus
435
and shift your mind from tired to calm or even energized
436
and if you really stop and think about it you can embrace the truth of
437
that and as I think about that like the sound of running water.
438
I wonder if why it works is
439
because the sound of running water makes me think of moments of time where I'm like laying by a river.
440
It reminds your mind that life isn't always this freaking chaotic and nutso,
441
that there are parts of you that experience moments of calm, moments of peace.
442
And you can use this technique that he's taught you in order to tap into that when you're feeling like you're fried.
443
And I know that, you know, a lot of people around the world listen to this show
444
and they live in large cities and maybe you live in a big city
445
or maybe you're listening
446
and you work in an office where you have the kind of job where you're inside all day
447
or on your feet taking care of people all day.
448
I really want you to pay attention to this particular technique because it's going to be especially helpful to you.
449
because you know that feeling when you finally step outside
450
and take your first real breath of fresh air all day
451
and you're like oh my gosh I feel like I just
452
escaped from the crypt oh okay I'm out of there we're
453
free people you know in fact you know I told you I took a walk yesterday that's for real
454
and I went outside and I was with my sister-in-law Christine who's our chief operating officer
455
and I turned to her
456
and I just said this is incredible we should make this
457
mandatory every single day there are people walking around we got
458
an ice cream cone in the middle of the day there is a blue sky the breeze was blowing
459
and just noticing those things it shifts something in you so why I wait until your brain is completely fried.
460
Use the research to feel better every single day.
461
And if you are fried, like I have been feeling fried, use this research to feel better every single day.
462
When I step back in from that walk, and so we're combining Dr. Suzuki's 10-minute walk research here, along with Dr. Alter's research,
463
where you really wanna notice.
464
Don't go out there and stare at your phone.
465
Step outside and notice.
466
I was a fundamentally different Mel Robbins when I came back into the office.
467
The fog was lifted.
468
I felt more energized.
469
My mood was different.
470
And the rest of the day was different.
471
This is such an easy thing to try.
472
See, life is hard, but making yourself feel a little better doesn't have to be hard.
473
Or you could just put a beautiful plant on your desk
474
or buy some fresh flowers at the grocery store and put them in a little jar next to your computer.
475
This one's my personal favorite.
476
I love, love, love fresh flowers.
477
I always have one right on the windowsill by my computer.
478
Open the window.
479
Take out your headphones when you're walking to work and listen.
480
And I mean, really listen.
481
Listen to the birds, to the rain.
482
Listen to the wind.
483
Listen to the kids laughing as you walk past that playground.
484
Whatever is around you, listen.
485
Because when your brain is overloaded, you just need to give your brain something else to focus on.
486
Not the phone call, the screen, the emails, the texts, the meeting, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.
487
Something different.
488
Something new.
489
Now we're going to talk about the fourth thing that you can do to feel better fast.
490
And this one addresses something that I saw in so many of your fellow listeners responding to that question, what do you need help with right now?
491
And what you need help with is you're tired of being so serious all the time.
492
You're tired of being responsible for everyone and holding everything together.
493
And more than anything else, you're just sick and tired of being hard on yourself.
494
You look in the mirror and you start putting yourself down.
495
And even when you accomplish something, you're so quick to move the goalpost and move on to what's next
496
and not even savor the thing that you just did right.
497
Come on, what is going on with you and me?
498
Not everything has to be that deep for crying out loud.
499
When do we all get so freaking serious?
500
No wonder we're all exhausted.
501
We're constantly beating the hell out of ourselves.
502
I mean, you'd never talk to your kids like that, right?
503
So why do you talk to yourself like that?
504
And there's a shift that you need to make.
505
You need to stop waiting for somebody else to pick you back up.
506
You need to stop waiting for someone in your life to come along and hype you up.
507
Do you deserve that?
508
Of course you do.
509
We all deserve to be told that you're doing a good job, but you also need to become your own cheerleader.
510
You need to remind yourself that not everything is that deep.
511
Not everything is worth your attention for crying out loud.
512
And by gosh, you're doing a darn good job at the things you are doing.
513
That the person that looks at you and says, I got you.
514
You're amazing.
515
Look how far you come.
516
That person needs to be you.
517
You need to remind yourself.
518
You're allowed to have fun because if we're not having fun, of course, everything's going to feel heavy.
519
You're allowed to wake up and think, what kind of shenanigans are we gonna get into today?
520
In fact, you need to remind yourself that you've gotta get into some more shenanigans and trouble.
521
And the one person that could probably do that in a way
522
that makes you laugh as she does is none other than Chelsea Handler.
523
Chelsea is hilarious.
524
I mean, obviously, she's one of the most successful comedians of all time, but underneath all that humor is something really powerful.
525
She has learned how to have her own back.
526
And when I read her New York Times bestselling book, I'll have what she's having.
527
There's one passage that I couldn't help but cry reading.
528
Because she wrote about becoming for herself what she'd spent her entire life trying to be for everyone else.
529
How to become her own best friend, her own cheerleader, her own best listener.
530
Here is Chelsea Handler on the Mel Robbins podcast, reading that passage from her book to you
531
and then you're going to hear us unpack what that actually means
532
and how you can become
533
that best friend for yourself too i became for myself what
534
i've tried to be for every important person in my life
535
my own best friend my own cheerleader my own listener my
536
mother my sister i became my own daughter how do you do
537
that for yourself you have to love yourself and you have You have to wake up every single day and say,
538
I know you high five yourself in the mirror every day.
539
I wake up every single day.
540
I look in the mirror and I say, what kind of shenanigans are we going to get up to today?
541
You beautiful human being.
542
You literally say that.
543
I say that.
544
Yes.
545
I mean, there are mornings I don't say it, but I say, I said it this morning.
546
I say to myself all the time, you're amazing.
547
If I see a mirror, I'm like, you're amazing.
548
Look what you've done.
549
You're incredible.
550
Who the fuck else is going to tell us that every day?
551
We have to, and we all as women, and to the woman that is listening to this,
552
you know, we have to make sure that we remind ourselves every day of our intrinsic and innate value.
553
We are so valuable just by the nature of us being here is value, and we can add so much value to so many people's lives.
554
And it doesn't matter if you're a famous person or you're a public person.
555
You have the ability to do that as a private person with a quieter life.
556
Every time you see a new person on the street, you can smile at them with love in your eyes.
557
You can see somebody going through a hard time at the airport and come over and be like, do you need help?
558
Can I help you?
559
The person that's working in the airport bathroom to smile and say, how are you doing?
560
Are you having a good day?
561
I always think that's easy to do when you're in a good mood.
562
But when you're in a bad mood, to extend your generosity when you don't fucking feel like it, that's like next level.
563
I just love Chelsea.
564
And there are two things, did you notice, that she was teaching you?
565
The first is, number one, you have to become the person who has your own back.
566
Not once in a while.
567
Not only when things are going well.
568
Every single day.
569
You have to be the one who looks in the mirror and says, I got you.
570
I got you.
571
You're doing better than you think.
572
I mean, look at how far you've come.
573
You are amazing.
574
And look, I know that feels kind of weird and cringy and awkward, but do it anyway.
575
Because do you want to spend your whole life saying the opposite to yourself?
576
Hoping that someone else is going to just kind of waltz in and tell you the things that you deserve to hear?
577
Don't do that.
578
Remind yourself.
579
Tell yourself the things you want to hear.
580
And the second thing that I want to make sure that you really take away from this, because it's just as powerful,
581
when you're stuck in a bad mood, stop making the entire world about your bad mood.
582
Look up.
583
Ask somebody for help.
584
Help someone else.
585
Notice someone.
586
Smile at someone.
587
Help someone.
588
Hold the door open for someone.
589
Ask someone else, are you okay?
590
Because the fastest way out of your own head is to put some love into the world around you.
591
The fastest way to stop marinating in your own bad mood
592
is to look around and see if you can help someone else.
593
And I really want you to try both of these suggestions.
594
I want you to look in the mirror.
595
I want you to tell yourself, I got you.
596
I see you, we got this, you're doing a great job, and I want you, when you catch yourself in a bad mood, do not turn the entire world into a bad mood.
597
Get out of your head and see what you can do for somebody else.
598
It'll shift your mood immediately.
599
And that brings me to the fifth and final feeling I saw over and over and over again, and my favorite piece of advice and the tool that you're gonna get,
600
which is one of my favorite things that have ever been shared on the Mel Robbins podcast.
601
And the fifth feeling is heavy because you're feeling scared.
602
You feel uncertain.
603
You feel sad about the future.
604
I mean, some of your fellow listeners wrote in, what would you tell someone who's lost their focus and their vision for their own life?
605
Someone else wrote, I'm completely lost.
606
I don't know what I'm meant to do in my life.
607
or even where to start.
608
I'm feeling called to change.
609
I'm so unhappy though, and I don't even know how to begin.
610
I want to succeed, but I don't know how, and it's stressing me out.
611
How can I find myself again?
612
Ah.
613
One of the things that really struck me is how many of you want change.
614
You want a sense of direction, but you don't know where to start.
615
And I think a lot of times when you get stuck in a chapter of your life
616
or you get stuck thinking about how bad you feel,
617
all you're doing is spinning in place because all you see is where you're standing.
618
And that's why it's so easy to start to convince yourself that you don't know where to start.
619
But maybe the real question isn't, where do I start?
620
Maybe the real question is, where am I going?
621
And that brings me to the final expert I want to introduce you to.
622
Because without a destination in mind, it's really hard to step up to the starting line.
623
Of course you don't know how to start because you don't know where you're going.
624
And without having a final destination that you can envision, it's impossible to create a set of directions from where you are to where you want to go next.
625
And that brings me to the final expert from the Mel Robbins podcast
626
that I am so excited for you to listen to.
627
Because Dr. Martha Beck has an extraordinary tool that is backed by science.
628
She has been using this for decades to help you right now envision where you want to go in the future.
629
Dr. Martha Beck is one of the most respected life coaches in the world.
630
She holds three degrees from Harvard, is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, and is famously known as Oprah's life coach.
631
Dr. Martha Beck has an extraordinarily powerful exercise that she calls the ideal day.
632
And the reason why I wanted you to experience this exercise live right now is
633
because it is the tool based on research
634
that not only helps you step up to
635
and over the starting line by the time you are done
636
with this exercise you will have a clear picture of a future
637
that really makes you come alive and dr martha beck is going to walk you through this simple exercise
638
where you just close your eyes and you picture one perfect ideal day.
639
And I want you to do it with me right now.
640
Don't overthink it.
641
Don't question.
642
Don't ask yourself, how's it all gonna happen?
643
I want you to just take a deep breath and listen.
644
Let your intuition answer.
645
Let your senses come alive.
646
Here is Dr. Martha Beck walking you through the ideal day exercise.
647
The ideal day.
648
It's really simple.
649
And now you're grounded in your body.
650
This is the track.
651
We have to follow the track.
652
This is how you track forward.
653
How far would you like to go in the future?
654
We're going to do time travel.
655
So you, I don't do hypotheticals.
656
I want to know what you're going to do.
657
I immediately thought a decade, 10 years.
658
Okay.
659
Think about, you don't have to say it.
660
Think about the age you'll be and the age your husband, your children will be.
661
Sort of move your mind forward like a calendar.
662
Now, here are the instructions.
663
Your life is absolutely what it was meant to be.
664
Every expression of your greatest joy and your greatest fulfillment.
665
You're going to wake up on a day that is an ordinary day in a perfect life, in an ideal life.
666
So what I'm going to do is I'll prompt you with a few things.
667
And I want you to let your senses answer these questions, not your mind.
668
So your mind can't time travel.
669
It will tell you it can, but it can't.
670
Only the body can time travel.
671
And this is how it goes.
672
You wake up on this morning and you don't even open your eyes.
673
You listen.
674
What do you hear on this day, an ordinary day in your perfect life in 2034?
675
What do you hear?
676
I hear waves and I hear little kids laughing.
677
Okay.
678
So smell the air.
679
Don't open your eyes.
680
What do you smell?
681
Salt.
682
Coffee.
683
I'm seeing a theme here.
684
All right.
685
Open your eyes.
686
Look at the sheets.
687
What color are they?
688
white look at the floor what does it look like wood
689
yeah it's a wide planked wood floor that's sort of uh
690
it's kind of um it's not shiny it's like worn cool look over across from you in the bed
691
who's there
692
if anyone loaded question okay great um look at the look
693
at the room what do you see the whole room um
694
it's very um like uh like just kind of modern and unfussy and beautiful and
695
are there photographs on the walls no there was a there's like a painting
696
or a photograph okay what does it look like it's um
697
it was like a big beach scene ah this theme is strong It's very strong.
698
All right.
699
Are there windows in the room?
700
There's one.
701
Okay.
702
Get up and go to the window and look out.
703
Okay.
704
What do you see?
705
Your life is perfect.
706
What do you see?
707
The ocean.
708
Okay.
709
It could also be like the Alps and the Sahara.
710
Like you can see anything.
711
There are no rules here.
712
Okay.
713
It's just imagination.
714
Yeah.
715
But you see the ocean.
716
Mm-hmm.
717
Is it like a tropical ocean or is it northern?
718
No, it's sort of northern.
719
Okay.
720
Rocky or just sandy?
721
Don't think.
722
It's just the ocean.
723
Cool.
724
All right.
725
So you go into your bathroom.
726
It's the perfect bathroom.
727
Look at the design of everything in the bathroom.
728
And then look at yourself in the mirror.
729
And you are your healthiest, most radiant, physically fit self.
730
Take that in.
731
You are looking fabulous.
732
Yes.
733
And so you do your morning stuff, take a shower or whatever.
734
Then you go to your closet and open the door.
735
This is very important.
736
The clothes in your closet reflect everything you do in your perfect life because you have to wear different things.
737
So I always ask people, look at the shoes.
738
What kinds of shoes do you have?
739
Oh, they're all like flip-flops and Birkenstocks.
740
No, like strappy sandals with stiletto heels?
741
Nope.
742
hiking boots.
743
Not at this house.
744
Oh, you have more than one house.
745
See how that came in?
746
This is fabulous.
747
So this is your beach house, clearly.
748
And you do not do formal wear at the beach house.
749
So what you're going to do now, Chris is still in the bed, maybe you go into the kitchen and you walk through this house.
750
As you walk through the house, see if there are pictures of events that have happened.
751
And like right now, I can see a picture behind you of a wonderful family trip to the ocean.
752
Look for the pictures that have been taken in the years between 2024 and 2034.
753
Two weddings.
754
Awesome.
755
Yeah.
756
Cool.
757
Well.
758
Grandbabies.
759
Oh, good.
760
Is it their laughter you can hear?
761
Yeah.
762
Oh, I thought so.
763
I love it.
764
I love that.
765
Can you feel that you are creating this future as we go through this?
766
You are out of anxiety and into imagination.
767
And the tears in your eyes tell me it's real.
768
You're finding your purpose right now.
769
And the things that bring tears to your eyes are the real purpose.
770
Forget career, forget money, forget all that bullshit.
771
When you're dying, it's the pictures of your grandkids you're going to look at.
772
Like it's the hugs they give you.
773
It's stuff that society says isn't valuable because there's no money attached to it.
774
That's bullshit.
775
When I walk people through this, we go through the whole day.
776
Who's in the kitchen?
777
And walk all the way.
778
I won't do it now because it would take the whole session.
779
But you go through the whole morning and see.
780
I'll ask you, what do you do in the mornings?
781
Well, you know what's interesting is I walk the beach.
782
I have a big thing of water.
783
I practice yoga.
784
I read on the porch.
785
Who's there?
786
I'm just hanging my family and my parents.
787
Oh, that's...
788
Can you feel how free that is?
789
Yeah.
790
Like, because you've done so much in the world that says, you know, be a lawyer, be that.. all that stuff
791
that was harsh and cruel and sort of tried to knock the sentimentality out of you, it was pushing you away from your purpose and into fear, into anxiety.
792
Because when we leave the track of our joy, a natural response is to be terrified.
793
And then we get stuck in that spiral and we can't come back.
794
But when you begin to create, which you just did, with your senses and your imagination, not verbal mind.
795
Don't be counting things and measuring how it's going to happen.
796
No. That's all left hemisphere thinking.
797
Senses and joy.
798
That's how you track your future.
799
And as you track it, you create it.
800
I wanted to ask you about the senses.
801
Yeah.
802
Because what happens when you tap into that creativity and you really navigate through a day like that using only senses.
803
Because I did catch myself at times, and I'm sure as you were listening and you were imagining your ideal day, you caught yourself thinking too.
804
Oh, yeah.
805
Yeah.
806
And it takes you out of the feel.
807
Yeah.
808
Why do the senses matter and why do they help you unlock your sense of purpose
809
and joy and tap into this creativity?
810
I'm so glad you asked.
811
And again, I don't want to get all sciencey here.
812
Don't please.
813
But the left hemisphere of the brain, which is glorified by our society,
814
that left hemisphere is what talks and counts and measures time and thinks of problems and tries to get what it wants.
815
And it's very fear-based.
816
So it gets stuck in anxiety.
817
When you go to the senses, if I asked you, imagine the taste of lemon, immediately the right hemisphere would start to light up.
818
The senses and our sense of being in place activate the right hemisphere, and so does imagination.
819
And creativity sums it all up.
820
So any artist is just in the present moment, very much in contact with what we're making, and not stuck in fear at all.
821
The interesting thing is that after you come out of a session of that, because your right hemisphere doesn't track time, and you go back into the verbal left hemisphere,
822
it will say, well, that was nothing.
823
That didn't even happen.
824
There was no time.
825
I don't know what you were doing.
826
What is that about?
827
So when you say, you know, I say, oh, yeah, bliss and white light and everything, and you're like, how does that add up?
828
It's the right hemisphere that gives us our sense of meaning, our sense of connection, our sense of joy, and the mind that goes,
829
ah, no. That actually is a completely different part of the brain.
830
But as I said, anxiety shuts down creativity, but creativity shuts down anxiety.
831
So while you were doing the ideal day, how anxious were you?
832
Zero.
833
Yeah.
834
Nothing.
835
Yeah.
836
Just pure feeling.
837
Yeah.
838
Some scientists, some psychologists set out to discover why we have all species on earth.
839
There's a certain proportion of us that take our own lives on purpose.
840
No other animal does that that we know of.
841
And the answer to why we do that is language.
842
Because of the way we think in language and time,
843
we can construct a future that is so painful to live with that it outweighs our fear of death.
844
A structure made of nothing but words and thoughts can torture us until we want to die.
845
And I lived that way for about 32 years.
846
And then I decided I was going to live in the awareness of that light.
847
I love that last sentence.
848
I decided I was going to live in the awareness of that light.
849
Incredible.
850
And you know what's so powerful about that exercise?
851
Is that when you open your eyes, you're still in your present life.
852
but the picture in your mind has changed.
853
And when the picture in your mind changes, how you feel right now changes too.
854
And that's exactly what Dr. Martha Beck means when she says,
855
in this ideal day, you are out of anxiety and into imagination because you've stopped questioning.
856
How's this ever gonna work?
857
I can't start.
858
I don't know what to do.
859
And instead, you start asking, what do I hear?
860
What do I smell? Who is beside me?
861
What do I see?
862
What photographs are around me?
863
Who's laughing?
864
It helps you to stop feeding the fear and drop into your senses and create a different future.
865
And that was the whole point of this episode, to help you to feel different.
866
Just five simple things that you can do to shift how you feel,
867
to shift your mood, to clear away the weight any single time you need to.
868
And I just want to say, I'm so proud of you.
869
I'm so proud of you for taking this time for yourself and listening to something that's going to make you feel better.
870
because you deserve to feel better.
871
And while life may feel very complicated, the things that you can do right now are pretty simple.
872
And while things may feel very hard, it is kind of easy to make yourself feel just a little bit better.
873
Even in those moments when you don't feel like yourself,
874
that stronger, clearer, and more energized version of you, you're still in there.
875
And these five tools help you tap back into that.
876
And in case no one else tells you today, as your friend, I wanted to be sure to tell you
877
that I love you and I believe in you and I believe in your ability to create a better life.
878
And there is no doubt in my mind that
879
if you do these simple things to make yourself feel better in your day-to-day life, your life will in fact get better.
880
All right, I'll see you in the very next episode.
881
I'm going to welcome you in the moment you hit play.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B11
Drink THIS For Amazing Skin | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
This 5 Second Trick Helps You Get MORE Done By Doing LESS | Mel Robbins
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor
Business EnglishInterview EnglishWorking Adults
B11
9 Small Things That Will Help You Feel Amazing Again
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
Reinvent Yourself At Any Age: Ina Garten Shares the Secret to Transforming Your Life
Business EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B2ADHD Is Not A Superpower | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
The Single Biggest Financial Decision | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
The Best Relationship Advice I've Ever Heard | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
If You Feel Stuck, Watch THIS To Manifest Your Dream Life
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
4 Small Things That Make People Feel Closer to You
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B226
You're Not Responsible for Fixing Other People | Mel Robbins #Shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
Do You Always Procrastinate? This Trick Will End That Habit Once And For All | Mel Robbins
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C12
The First Step Back To A Purposeful Life | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Would You Want Your Kids To Have Your Marriage? | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B217
Let Them Be Who They Are | Mel Robbins #Shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C122
Doing Hard Things Rewires Your Brain | Mel Robbins #shorts
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Hesitation is ruining your life | Mel Robbins #Shorts
Business EnglishInterview EnglishWorking Adults
B26
The 2 questions you need to ask yourself right now | Mel Robbins #Shorts
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B19
Other People's Behavior | Mel Robbins #shorts
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C111
This Is The Type of Job You Should Quit | Mel Robbins "Work It Out"
Business EnglishWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B17
47 sentences
This is how you come back to you | Mel Robbins
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B127
467 sentences
Episode 1: Learn Real English Speaking! Phrases & Situations for Intermediate Learners
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B112
31 sentences
Build a Strong Mindset #everydayenglish #positivethinking #englishpodcast #learnenglish #english
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B25
271 sentences
how I’ve changed in a year (& why I feel more myself than ever)
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
523 sentences
If You're In Your 20s, Watch This BEFORE It's Too Late (Seriously…) | Jay Shetty
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B14
352 sentences
DAILY MOOD RESET! listen every day to REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! affirmations for self love & inner power
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
130 sentences
3 Brain Tricks That Make You Happier in 15 Seconds
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B12
203 sentences
Change Your Life While Learning English | English Podcast for Daily Improvement
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
207 sentences
Stop Saying "I'm Fine" 😮 Say THIS Instead to Sound Like a Native | Talk About Feelings in English
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
198 sentences
How I Got Over My Worst Heartbreak (And You Can Too)
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
815 sentences
NYU Professor: Do This for 2 Weeks to Get Your Focus, Motivation, & Life Back
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B16
123 sentences
2.8k
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
Speaking Goals for This Clip: Master Conversational Flow & Empathetic Tone
This video is perfect for learners aiming to sound natural in casual, supportive conversations. You’ll practice pacing, pausing, and using a warm, relatable tone—key for connecting with others. It’s ideal for shadowspeak practice, as the dialogue balances storytelling with practical advice, helping you mimic real-life speech patterns.
Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Daily Chats
- "I can just feel it" – To express intuition about a situation.
- "dealing with a lot" – A gentle way to say someone is stressed.
- "blown me away" – To describe something surprising or impactful.
- "dig back in" – To revisit information for deeper insight.
- "kind of feel blech" – A casual phrase for feeling unwell or unmotivated.
Fix Your Weak Spots: Pronunciation & Rhythm Tips
Notice how the speaker shortens words like "gonna" and "wanna"—this is common in fast, friendly speech. Practice reducing "going to" to "gonna" and "want to" to "wanna" to sound more natural. Also, focus on the rise and fall of her voice when sharing emotional moments (e.g., "over half a million people responded")—this intonation keeps listeners engaged. Use this clip on a shadowing site to repeat phrases aloud, matching her pace and tone. It’s a great way to learn English with videos while improving your fluency!
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 | you've been dealing · we've been talking · I've been experiencing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've analyzed · have appeared · has ever been shared |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is lit · been shared · has been reported |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | saying, which is · listeners, which is · scrolling, 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.