Shadowing Practice: i feel like my life is boring and it scares me - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Somebody said something interesting to me the other day.

They said, Emma, you know, you kind of feel like a grandmother stuck in a 24-year-old's body.

And when they said this, I took a pause.

And immediately, a bunch of thoughts and feelings that had been bubbling below the surface came to the surface, and I had an epiphany.

That my life is kind of boring.

Considering my age, I'm 24 years old, my life is shockingly boring.

When I think about what it means to be 24 years old based on stories from my elders, the media, et cetera, I think of chaos,

mess, fun, mistakes, irresponsibility, everything that my life is not, basically.

My life is really tame.

I don't drink alcohol.

I don't do drugs.

I don't go to very many parties.

I can't tell you the last time I went to a club, okay?

I don't have a lot of sex.

I'm like the relationship type.

I go to bed at a reasonable hour.

I eat healthy.

I exercise.

I have a routine that I stick to.

I'm incredibly disciplined.

I try to do the right thing.

I think I'm pretty good at doing the right thing.

My life is really tame.

And as much as this is sort of a wonderful thing, like in theory, isn't it wonderful to live a life like this?

I feel like a lot of young people actually are striving to live a life like this.

And by some miracle, I have found myself in this position where I'm living a really beautiful,

healthy life, but I found myself feeling really bored in it and understimulated looking at other 24 year olds and thinking,

should I be living like that?

Have I expedited my life in a way

and ended up in a stage of adulthood that's more developed than where I should be?

Am I wasting my youth being almost too responsible and living almost too healthy and too tame of a life too soon?

It causes a sense of restlessness in me.

And it bothers me because it doesn't make sense.

And so today I thought I'd investigate this feeling.

I thought we could investigate this feeling and maybe try to resolve it.

I want to either reintroduce a level of chaos into my life for the sake of youth,

because I'm only 24 once, you know what I mean?

Or I want to find some level of satisfaction in the lifestyle that I've found myself living.

Come up with some sort of plan.

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Now back to the episode.

Let's start by analyzing how I developed my lifestyle, why I live the way that I do.

Sort of grandmother-esque in the eyes of some and kind of in the eyes of me too.

Although I don't think I live like a grandmother.

Like I'm not full-on grandma.

Like I don't think grandmothers are like popping a zin because yes, I am using the zin.

I'm still addicted to nicotine.

That's like the one naughty thing that I do.

I also occasionally will, I don't know, watch too many YouTube shorts.

That feels kind of naughty in young.

You know, I don't think grandparents are watching YouTube shorts, although I wouldn't be surprised.

But anyway, let's discuss how I got here.

Starting out with my sobriety.

Okay.

I don't participate in alcohol or drugs.

Why?

Because I have a terrible physical reaction.

This is not by choice.

This is not me being like, oh, it's healthier to not participate in these things.

I didn't wake up one day and read an article and then say, you know what?

I'm done.

No. With alcohol, I had to quit because I'm pretty sure I developed an allergy.

Alcohol gives me hives and rashes on my face.

No, actually, I don't know if it's hives.

I get super red and like patchy red on my face when I drink sometimes.

I also developed a nausea from drinking that I didn't used to get towards the end of my drinking career, if you will.

Towards the end of my drinking, I'm having one glass of wine and getting so nauseous

that I either feel like I'm going to throw up or I actually do throw up.

And the combination of everything to me was a sign

that clearly alcohol doesn't work with my body and it made me miserable.

So I stopped drinking and I haven't drank alcohol since October of 2024.

Wait, yeah.

October of 2024.

It's been over a year.

And to be honest, I actually really like being sober.

I'd be super anxious after a night of drinking.

It made me feel gross physically, sluggish, just like shit.

I don't know.

I enjoy not drinking.

It's a bummer because I used to enjoy a little buzz at a party or something.

You know, I used to enjoy the experience of going to a wine bar with friends and getting to fully participate.

I do miss it to an extent, but it wasn't worth it.

And I will say it has forced me to learn to be social, sober, which I think is an incredible skill to have.

So to me, it's okay.

Drugs, marijuana, mushrooms, shit like that freaks me out.

Marijuana, every time I consume marijuana, I have a panic attack.

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I had such a bad panic attack from edibles one time that it permanently changed my brain.

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I'm not kidding.

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My brain has never been the same.

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It made me dissociate so badly for the first time, by the way, I'd never dissociated before.

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So no weed for me.

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Mushrooms.

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I've done mushrooms a few times.

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I actually really enjoyed it, but I'm a little bit too anxious these days to take anything like that.

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I'm too anxious of having a bad trip

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and then being stuck in it to the point where it's not even worth participating.

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And then any other drugs are just dangerous and bad and bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

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So it doesn't matter.

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I'm not, I wouldn't do those in any circumstance.

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So that's why I'm sober.

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These things just don't react well with me.

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Like, listen, if I wanted to reintroduce a little bit of chaos into my life, could I try drinking again?

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I guess.

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But I don't think, I don't think that's the root of the problem.

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I don't think being sober is the reason for my restlessness.

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Because honestly, when I look back at when I used to drink, it made me so anxious and unhappy.

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And that was at its best when I was having the best reaction to it, the least uncomfortable.

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It was like severe anxiety.

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And then at worst I was having, I would get a rash or be nauseous.

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You see what I'm saying?

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So I don't think that's the issue.

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Okay, next, I don't go out very much.

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I think there's a few reasons for this.

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Number one, my friends are older for the most part, between like five and maybe like five and nine years older than me.

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And the age difference is noticeable when it comes to going out

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because they've already gone through the going out phase of being in your 20s.

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They're now all in relationships,

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comfortable, satisfied, and they don't feel the pull to go out as much as maybe I do being single and 24.

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So if your friend group doesn't wanna go out, go to a club, doesn't wanna go to a party just for the sake of going to a party,

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doesn't want to go to a bar just for the sake

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of going to a bar you're not going to end up

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going you know you're going to do what the rest of

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the group wants to do i don't necessarily mind this

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because in reality i don't really even enjoy doing those things either

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but there are times where i'm like i'm itching to go

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out i need to go out i need to be social my friends are like emma we're tired

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we're tired no no that's not to say that i don't like

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that i never go out i do go out sometimes you You know, I'll go to a party every once in a while.

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I will go to a bar every once in a while, but less frequently than other 24 year olds that I know.

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But as I said, though, too, I don't wanna go to a club.

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It's too loud, it's not fun, unless you're under the influence of something, which I obviously am not.

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It's just not, it just doesn't work for me.

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If anything, I prefer something more social, like a party or a bar.

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But even that is sort of hit or miss.

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Like I'll find myself itching to go out, itching, itching, itching to go out.

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And then I'll go to a bar or go to a party or something.

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And I'll be like, ew, I'm bored.

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This is not that fun.

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People are, you know, being maybe less social than I expected.

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This is just less stimulating than I anticipated.

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Like, I could have skipped that.

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Moving on to my sort of boring love life.

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Okay.

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I am usually in a long-term relationship.

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When I'm not, like right now, I don't really like casual hookups and I don't love serial dating.

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If you don't know what serial dating is, serial dating is, according to the internet.

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A serial dater is someone who frequently dates many different people in succession, often moving quickly from one relationship to the next without much downtime,

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driven by a love for the thrill of new romance, avoiding commitment, fearing loneliness, or seeking validation and attention.

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They enjoy the early exciting stages of dating, but get bored easily or shy away from deep commitment.

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When I think of an exciting love life for someone in their early 20s, I think of having sex,

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making out with random people at the bar, going home with people and having sex.

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I think of going on a bunch of first dates that are like shitty and being like, God damn it.

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That one was bad.

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That one was bad too.

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Now I need to go on another date or, oh my God, I'm in love with this person just to then be like, ew, I hate them a week later.

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Like this sort of excitement drama, I've tried it a little, you know, I've tried the casual hookup thing and without fail, every single time I feel icky afterwards.

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I don't feel good.

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I feel gross.

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And I don't think that has anything to do with societal expectations or beliefs or feelings around casual sex.

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I actually don't think it has anything to do with external factors like that.

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I think it's strictly the experience of being romantic with somebody that I'm not close with.

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I don't necessarily feel 100% comfortable and safe with.

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That experience to me is icky.

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I'm attracted to safety as much as I'd love to be like having random sex and stuff.

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Because there is something satisfying about that when you're single.

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It's sort of a, I don't know, it makes you feel in control of, how do I put this?

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Having casual sex is a reminder that you're attractive, that people want to be with you, that they're attracted to you,

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which is reassuring in a moment of singlehood.

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I absolutely have moments when I'm single, experiencing it right now, where I'm like, does mama still got it or what?

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Like, does anyone like me?

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Or it would be nice if someone would be really interested in me,

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like would be interested me sexually because I'm a little nervous that people don't, that no one likes me.

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Do you know what I'm saying?

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And this is just the truth of it, the reality of it.

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If I were to do that, it would be, I think for the wrong reasons.

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And that's not the case for everybody, but the case for me.

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And so that's why I don't have casual sex.

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It sounds like it would be fun, but every time I've done it, it has not been fun.

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Could I potentially get out there and experiment and try it again.

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I could, I could, but I'm at the risk of not honoring my past experiences

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in potentially putting myself in a situation where I'm deeply uncomfortable at my own hand.

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And why would I, it's like, so yeah, I could do that.

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But then it's like, that actually seems like I'm, I'm actively making a choice to ignore what I know about myself.

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And that seems self-destructive.

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Like it just doesn't seem smart.

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In addition to not enjoying casual sex, I also don't like serial dating.

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The idea of going on a bunch of first dates

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and getting to the honeymoon phase with a bunch of different people

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and then cutting it off and then starting something new and fresh again, even though it's a bit toxic, perhaps it sounds fun, right?

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It sounds fun.

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It sounds exciting.

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But for whatever reason, I don't like the beginning stages in a relationship.

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I don't like the honeymoon phase.

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I like the part of the relationship when we're farting, we're super close.

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I don't feel like I have to read into what someone's saying.

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We can just be completely open because we've made a commitment to one another.

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And a lot of the guesswork is taken out when that commitment is made.

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I prefer the later stages in a relationship if anything.

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The beginning is quite stressful for me.

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I tend to overthink it or not even overthink it, but I tend to sort of obsess over it in a way because that's what's fun about it.

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It's a distraction.

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It's almost drug-like in the beginning when you're so excited and you have such a big crush, it's all consuming.

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And to some that's an escape and that's fun and that's exciting.

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To me, that's exhausting and stressful and frightening.

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And I would rather just skip ahead to being in a committed relationship and being extremely comfortable together, which is why I don't serial date.

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I have never even attempted serial dating.

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I have literally only ever gone on dates with guys I'm dating already, like that are my boyfriend.

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I usually know when I wanna date somebody before we've even gone on a date

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because either they're a mutual friend or we've started talking via text message.

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And by the time we're like going on a date, we're already kind of dating.

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Does that make sense?

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And I've never even gotten into that stage with somebody who I haven't ended up dating long term.

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I don't go on random dates.

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The idea of serial dating exhausts me.

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It seems like an emotional roller coaster, you know, getting into the honeymoon phase with somebody.

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And then once that starts to dwindle, leaving it and moving on to the next or whatever.

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or just going on a bunch of dates and having sort of a roster of like, these are all the guys I'm casually dating right now.

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Like that experience, though it seems more stimulating and interesting, also seems exhausting and it actually is sort of unappealing to me.

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But as much as it is unappealing to me, I look at other people my age doing that and I, again, kind of envy it.

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It seems like it would be so fun and exciting to date that way but also I think deep down, I know the reality wouldn't work for me.

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I'm not going to start having random sex and I'm not going to start building my dating roster of like 20 guys.

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20 would be a lot.

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I don't even, I don't even think there's 20 guys in this.

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I don't know that, that, yeah, that's not that, that's let's say five guys, burgers and fries.

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Okay, fine.

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Let's say six guys.

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Moving on, I live a very healthy lifestyle, okay?

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I exercise, I go on my morning walks, I go to my hot yoga,

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I eat nutritious foods, things such as lentils,

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vegetables, and fruits, and proteins.

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I tend to cook for myself.

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I don't order food delivery very often.

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I live a very healthy lifestyle, which not in a toxic way though, I don't think at this point in my life,

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it's not like I don't eat dessert ever.

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It's not like I'm out at a restaurant with my friends and I'm like, no, no, no, I'm healthy.

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So I'm not going to have a bite of the pecan pie.

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That's not accurate.

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I of course will eat the pecan pie.

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In fact, I'll probably eat more of it than anyone else because I love a dessert.

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But day to day, I'm going to my workouts, I'm going on my walks and I'm eating nutritiously and healthily.

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I don't know, in a weird way, when I think of being in your early 20s, I think of eating an entire bag of Cheez-Its for dinner, staying up too late.

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I imagine laying in bed all day sometimes.

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I imagine all these different things because when you're young, you can get away with it and you don't feel as bad.

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You don't feel the repercussions as severely when you're young.

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You can get away with saying, fuck it, I'm not gonna exercise for two months, fuck it.

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I'm not gonna eat any vegetables for two months.

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You can do that.

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And yet I very early in my life discovered that I feel so much better when I live a very healthy life.

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That also includes, you know, even going to bed early or not even necessarily early, but at a responsible hour and waking up at a responsible hour.

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There was a time I would say when I was a teenager where I did all the things I'm describing, you know, I'd eat an entire bag of cheese.

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That's for dinner and have a terrible stomachache from it.

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I would go to bed at four in the morning.

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I wouldn't exercise for months on end.

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And you don't want to know what I felt like shit.

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I felt fucking terrible.

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I felt physically terrible, but also mentally terrible.

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I felt horrible.

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So it's very odd once again, that I'm questioning, like I'm like feeling,

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um, I'm feeling restless about a lifestyle that does actually make me feel physically good.

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If I were to drop my healthy habits for the sake of chaos, which sounds ridiculous, but again,

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we're having a bizarre sort of conversation here because I'm experiencing a feeling that's sort of bizarre and confusing

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and doesn't really make any sense.

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If I were to drop all of my healthy habits

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and regress technically and go back and start eating foods that aren't nutritious and sleeping bad hours and not exercising,

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I would hate my life.

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My quality of life would be worse.

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That's not gonna work.

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So I don't know.

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Now back to the episode.

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Next, I stick to a very consistent routine.

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Like my life for the most part is consistent and pretty mundane.

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Like it rarely deviates from routine.

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same thing every single day, which I think is pretty common for most people of all ages.

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But my particular routine feels very, it feels a bit, it does feel a little bit grandma coded.

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The spark notes of my daily routine is wake up early, make my coffee.

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Recently, I've been journaling, go on a walk, do chores, work, take a break from working, exercise, come home, get back to work, cook dinner.

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Oh, probably earlier in the day I cooked something for breakfast and lunch, do more chores, feed my cats.

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I also fed my cats earlier in the day too.

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Talk to my loved ones on the phone, go to bed, repeat.

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Now, let me ask myself, what do I think most 24-year-olds are doing on a day-to-day basis?

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Probably the same thing.

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But when I imagine the lifestyle of others in their early 20s, I think of people going out to dinners on weeknights going to parties on weeknights,

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waking up late on accident.

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I don't know.

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Like it just a little bit more, ah, je ne sais quoi, or not even je ne sais quoi, but like a little bit more chaos.

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You know what I'm saying?

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My, it's like so chill my life.

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It's so relaxed.

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It's like, it's so consistent and so simple and so healthy.

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But I think probably most people, like that's probably most people's routine.

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So I don't know why I'm sort of, it seems that what I'm doing is as I'm describing all of this it seems

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that I'm doing two things number one I'm creating a false

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version of what a normal 24 year old's life looks like a romanticized version a dramaticized version

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and I'm comparing my life to that and

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that comparison is making me feel restless what I'm comparing my life to is something

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that is ultimately not real and and is seems more fun

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and more loose and more exciting and maybe even happier because I'm romanticizing it a little bit.

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And as they say, the grass is always greener.

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It's almost like I'm looking at what I think other 24 year olds are doing.

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And I'm like, wait, that looks more fun.

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I'm all buttoned up over here.

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I'm being responsible.

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And it feels so boring.

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The grass is always greener.

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It seems that's the first thing that's going on here.

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The other thing that seems to be going on here is that I think in order to live my life this way, I have to be very disciplined.

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And I think the level of discipline

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that it takes to live my life the way that I do is sort of fatiguing for me in a way.

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Those things don't necessarily come naturally.

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And the lifestyle itself is a bit under stimulating for me.

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And so I find myself between sort of a rock and a hard place here where I'm like, okay, I can't go backwards.

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I know better, you know, after analyzing my lifestyle, I don't see any areas where I could in good faith regress.

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Like, why would I regress?

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Technically, it's like I've actually arrived at a really good place here and I to go backwards is stupid.

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It's actually stupid, but I'm feeling restless.

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So what is that restlessness?

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And it seems that the restlessness is stemming from a combination of comparison

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and also there being a lack of stimulation in my life.

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My disciplined, routine, healthy life is not stimulating enough for me.

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So how do I address these issues?

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Let's brainstorm together.

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What should I do?

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What should I do?

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To start, I think I need to work on being mindful about this.

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I think I need to integrate a bit of mindfulness

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when I find myself comparing my life to other fictional 24 year olds, I need a reality check, a self-inflicted reality check.

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I think number one, I need to stop romanticizing things I know don't work for me.

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Just because the fictional 24 year old in my head

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that I'm comparing myself to has a bunch of fun with a roster of six people that they're dating at once.

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And they went to bed at five in the morning because they were clubbing all night.

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I need to remind myself why I don't do those things.

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I could if I wanted to.

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Why don't I do them?

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Because I know better, because I know that it doesn't work for me, because I know it actually makes me miserable.

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So I need to remind myself

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that I'm comparing myself to a fictional 24-year-old for one and also remind myself why I don't do those things.

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Remind myself of the times when I have done those things

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and how I felt instead of just subconsciously sort of gnawing on this fictional 24-year-old character in my head.

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I need to bring that to the forefront of my head

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and address it head on and remember the truth of the situation.

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Next, I need to stay in my own lane.

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It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing.

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I need to stay in my own lane and focus on my own life.

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I need to put my energy towards my life

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and ignore what other people are doing or what other people are saying about what I'm doing.

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It doesn't matter.

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I need to put my head down and stay in my lane.

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When I catch myself comparing my life to a fictional 24-year-old or even a real 24-year-old, because that actually does happen sometimes too.

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I would say most of the time I'm comparing myself to

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sort of this idea of what I think I should be doing at my age, but sometimes it is an actual real person.

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I need to focus on me.

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Everybody's on their own journey.

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I know that.

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I need to remind myself of that when I find myself struggling with this.

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And lastly, I think I need to focus on gratitude

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for how good my lifestyle makes me feel

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because I haven't always felt this good and I rarely take time to be grateful for how good I feel.

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I put a lot of effort into feeling good.

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I should take him in every once in a

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while to acknowledge how good I feel compared to how bad I used to feel

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when I was younger and I hadn't implemented the habits that I've implemented.

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Attempting to turn my restlessness into gratitude might be the move.

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Moving on from mindfulness, I've also tried to think about some activities

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that I could integrate into my life that maybe would help with this feeling of restlessness.

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Number one, cooking meals from scratch.

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I actually already started doing this.

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It was one of my New Year's resolutions.

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I want to cook things really from scratch, like not just like, oh, you know, I got like a loaf of bread from the store

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and then now I'm I wanna make avocado toast on that bread that I bought from the store.

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I wanna start making my own bread.

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Or like, you know, instead of going and getting a can of soup from the grocery store, I wanna make my own soup.

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I've really gotten into it and I've really loved it.

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Do I think that it's solved my feelings of restlessness?

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No, but it's not completely, but it has helped.

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So I wanna continue doing that and continue cooking things from scratch because it's so immersive.

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You're so immersed in the experience and there's such a wonderful reward, yummy food.

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I think the distraction and the excitement of that, at least for me, has been helpful.

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So I'm going to continue doing that and continue to make more

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and more challenging recipes because I think the challenge is what makes it riveting.

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Another thing I want to start doing, hosting social gatherings, either at my house or out somewhere.

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I think it is really important for me to be social.

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And I've found that the more social that I'm being, the less restless I feel.

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But I will say that, you know, the traditional methods of socializing seemingly don't work for me, right?

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Like, I don't love going out to the club.

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I don't love going out even to a bar or a party.

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So perhaps I could put together some sort of social gathering

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that appeals to me and will probably appeal to others whether that's like, you know, a weekend trip with a group of friends

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or a dinner party at my house or a dinner party at a restaurant or a game night.

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I need to host more gatherings that are interesting to me.

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I can't rely on other people to create these experiences for me.

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If I want these experiences more frequently in my life, I need to put the effort in

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and I need to actually create these experiences instead of waiting for these things to pop up a few times a year?

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Why don't I create them?

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And last but not least, try to become friends with more boys to help with my dating craving.

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Obviously, I feel like my love life is very boring and under stimulating.

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Well, why don't I become friends with more boys and develop crushes on them?

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That seems like the perfect happy medium.

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And that's something I've wanted to do anyway, but it's just hard.

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But perhaps I could become friends with more boys through hosting social gatherings.

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I can say, bring whoever you want to my social gathering.

425

And who knows, some cute boys might come and then I could become friends with them.

426

And then I could have crushes on them.

427

And then, you know, I'm not going to serial date them.

428

I'm just going to be friends.

429

And then when I really like one of them, eventually I'll confess my love or I will wait until they confess their love to me

430

because I am too scared usually to make the first move.

431

Okay.

432

So those are some ideas of activities that could help with my restlessness.

433

Last but not least, I think I could benefit from a bit more spontaneity.

434

I think there's a way to be spontaneous without regressing in reintroducing bad habits, right?

435

Spontaneity, I think could help bring some excitement into my life.

436

It's excitement without chaos.

437

A few, ways I could be spontaneous.

438

Number one, saying yes to every opportunity to travel or maybe not every opportunity to travel, but there are times when I'm so in the minutia of my routine.

439

I'm like, I don't want to travel right now.

440

So an opportunity to travel might come up

441

and I might pass on it because I am

442

so in the flow of my routine that I don't want to do it.

443

I think travel is a great opportunity to be spontaneous to sort of shake up your reality a little bit.

444

So if like all my friends are like, hey, we're doing a little weekend trip to here.

445

You know what?

446

Fuck it.

447

I'll cancel some responsibilities that I had that weekend to go

448

and do that because I think that that's really important to me.

449

That's that's what I'm talking about.

450

Now, is that going to come up on a monthly basis even?

451

Probably not.

452

But as often as these types of things come up, I should try to take those opportunities.

453

Also, a less extreme version and probably a more frequent opportunity, saying yes to spontaneous plans with friends.

454

Again, as I said with the travel, I will sometimes be like, ah, you know, like I had plans to work this weekend

455

because I didn't get as much done this week as I wanted to and nobody made any plans with me this weekend, so I'm going to work this weekend.

456

And then if spontaneous plans were to come up that weekend, I'd be like, oh no, I can't.

457

so I'd skip out on the fun activity less of

458

that more saying yes

459

because ultimately those memories are more important you know you listen there are times

460

when you got to get done what you got to get done

461

but clearly I'm experiencing an extreme where it's like I don't

462

have enough spontaneity in my life you know I could use a little bit more than I have

463

so I'm gonna attempt to say yes to more spontaneous plans with friends

464

and maybe even create more spontaneous plans with friends you know, if I'm bored on a Saturday afternoon, instead of laying around or whatever,

465

or filling that time with responsibilities, why not call my friends up and say, should we just go to Disneyland tonight randomly?

466

Like shit like that.

467

I don't know.

468

Another idea would be to make an effort to break routine by trying a new grocery store, a new coffee shop, a new workout class, etc. I've talked about this before,

469

because occasionally I will do this.

470

And without fail, every single time.

471

It is such a grounding experience that forces me to be present.

472

I'm such a creature of habit that anytime I change one little thing in my routine,

473

it really like shocks my brain out of autopilot and I'm forced to be present in such a beautiful way.

474

Every once in a while, it's really nice to sort of shake up the minute details in routine.

475

I think I could do that a little bit more often.

476

And I think when I find myself feeling restless, that might be a time to try something new

477

or even potentially like changing up my work week maybe instead of taking saturday

478

and sunday off one week i take monday

479

and tuesday off minute little tweaks in routine can really kind

480

of energize you in a weird way i don't know

481

so i need to i need to integrate a little bit more of

482

that into my life perhaps here's the thing i don't really

483

know what's going on the reason why i wanted to talk about it is

484

because I feel like people might look at my life and my lifestyle and think, wow, you know, she has her shit together.

485

She lives such a healthy, responsible lifestyle.

486

You know, I don't feel like my life is like that.

487

I feel like I need more discipline

488

or I feel like I need to be more responsible

489

or I feel like I need to focus more on my health and well-being.

490

I feel like people might look at my life and be like

491

and compare and feel bad and I wanted to discuss this

492

because I wanted to show you

493

that the grass is always greener you can really have your shit together

494

and still and there and just because of how the world works

495

because of how human brains work we'll still find something to

496

to whine about do you know what I'm saying I don't know.

497

And I think it's just proof that there's always more work to do.

498

You like, there's no such thing as arriving.

499

You're never going to exist in a perfect version of your life.

500

There's always going to be work to do.

501

And it's shocking to me that I'm probably living the healthiest,

502

most fulfilling version of my life I ever have in my life.

503

And I'm, and I'm feeling restless within minute how hilarious is

504

that but hopefully in like six months from now I can come back to you

505

and tell you how I resolved the feeling of restlessness I

506

mean I think analyzing it to this extent has helped me a lot

507

and I have somewhat of a plan moving forward some things to try

508

but I'll keep you updated the intent of this episode was

509

not to answer questions it was more to just explore

510

so we'll see give me a few months and maybe I'll get back to you that's it for this

511

I hope you enjoyed it.

512

If you did this 24 year old grandma posts new episodes of anything goes every Thursday

513

If you want to watch video that's on YouTube

514

and Spotify Listen anywhere else you get podcasts on social media

515

at anything goes I'm on the internet at Emma Chamberlain

516

and my coffee company is Chamberlain coffee That's all for today and i'll talk to you in a week from now.

517

I love you all I appreciate you all and i'm gonna go do some grandma shit like bird watching and like

518

crocheting and making cookies for my grandkids.

519

That's what I'm going to go do.

520

So I'll talk to you later.

521

I actually don't do any of that stuff except for making, well, I do love birds and I do love watching them, but I don't have binoculars and I don't have grandkids, but I do like cooking and baking.

522

So I have been doing that lately.

523

So I guess I have been doing that too.

524

And I don't crochet.

525

That is a step too far.

526

I'm not ready to crochet yet.

527

I have the second half of my life to crochet.

528

So we're waiting on that for as long as possible.

529

Okay.

530

Anyway, I love you all.

531

I appreciate you all.

532

Thank you for listening.

533

Talk to you soon.

534

Talk to you next week.

535

Love you and bye.

536

I just said all of that, I think twice.

537

So anyway, okay.

538

Love you.

539

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 539 sentences and 6403 words to shadow. The speech runs for 35:39. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
routine noun	/ɹuˈtin/	A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.
lifestyle noun	/ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/	A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.
serial adjective	/ˈsɪɹ.i.əl/	Having to do with or arranged in a series.
bore verb	/boɹ/	To inspire boredom in somebody.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
spontaneous adjective	/spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/	Self-directed; happening or acting without external cause or instigation; proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or momentary impulse.
chaos noun	/ˈkeɪˌɑs/	The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
casual adjective	/ˈkæʒ(u)əl/	Happening by chance.
restless adjective	/ˈɹɛstlɪs/	Not allowing or affording rest.
remind verb	/ɹəˈmaɪnd/	To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person).
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
discipline noun	/ˈdɪsəplɪn/	A controlled behaviour; self-control.
fictional adjective	/ˈfɪkʃənəl/	Invented, as opposed to real.
stimulate verb	/ˈstɪm.jəˌleɪt/	To encourage into action.
stash noun	/stæʃ/	A collection, sometimes hidden.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get away with verb		To get away, or escape, taking (something) with one.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
shake up verb		To agitate by shaking.
stay up verb		To remain awake; to not go to bed.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to get · used to enjoy · used to drink
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been journaling · have been doing
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you don't have yours yet, you'll find
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have found · Have I expedited · I've found

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 279 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: gathering /ˈɡæð.ɚ.ɪŋ/, grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, leather /ˈlɛðɚ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: casual /ˈkæʒ(u)əl/, fictional /ˈfɪkʃənəl/, stash /stæʃ/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/
Long words — get the stress right: spontaneous /spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, participate /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, marijuana /ˌmɛɹɪˈwɑ.nə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like routine, lifestyle, serial.

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: i feel like my life is boring and it scares me - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?