Shadowing Practice: I'm begging you to start journaling - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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I am begging you to start journaling.
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And I know how that sounds.
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Because journaling feels like one of those things everybody tells you that you should do.
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You write down your thoughts, you keep a gratitude journal, you write down your goals.
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And I think because we've heard all of that so many times, we've completely underestimated what journaling actually is.
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I actually believe there's no tool or process more powerful for your personal growth than journaling.
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So in this episode, I want to explain why journaling is so powerful, what's actually happening when you write, And then I'm gonna teach you the specific 10 to 15 minute journaling process
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that I use myself This practice is so potent that
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if you told me you were gonna burn all my tools
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and processes and frameworks and let me keep only one It would be this one.
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So let's get into it All right guys, here's what I really want you to understand before we get
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into this most personal growth practices They work on one maybe
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two dimension transformation meditation for example changes your relationship with your thoughts Right?
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Therapy can help you understand and process your emotions.
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Visualization helps you develop a relationship with a future that hasn't happened yet.
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Prayer connects you to something greater than yourself.
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But journaling is unique because it can do almost all of these things at the same time.
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Journaling recruits nearly the entire transformational system at once and all you need is a pen and a piece of paper.
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That's why I think this practice is so ridiculously underestimated.
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So I'm going to give you five different unlocks that journaling facilitates, which is why I think journaling may be one of the most powerful personal growth practices ever,
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and that I'm going to show you exactly how to do it.
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So unlock number one, journaling unlocks access to the subconscious mind.
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So the first reason journaling is so powerful is that by writing with your hand, you're slowing down your thought process so
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that you can gain access to the real information that sits behind the speed of your mind.
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Think about what happens when you're journaling in an intentional way.
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You're writing the first word of a sentence
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and you don't always know what the last word of that sentence is going to be until you get there.
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There have been plenty of times where I start writing a sentence with something like, I don't feel like, and my mind will say something like, doing any work today.
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But by the time I get to the second half of the sentence, my hand writes, anybody cares about me.
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Wow, that's an insight.
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In fact, what I found is that oftentimes the false problem is what the mind articulates.
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In this case, I don't feel like doing any work today.
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But the real problem, the reason I feel like procrastinating is
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because I don't feel like anybody cares about me or cares about the work that I would do today.
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Now, when you write, You open up the channel for
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that quiet subconscious whisper to express itself within the space
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that you've created by slowing down That's very different than
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when you speak If you ever notice
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when you're speaking with a friend before you start speaking You
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generally know where you're finishing You may not know every single word
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that you're going to use
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But you know the thought you know what you're trying to say
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because you're functioning inside of the processing speed of your inner computer Which is your mind But when you're writing, your hand can't keep up with the speed of your mind.
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And so there's this space that opens up.
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There's almost a communicating or a connection between you and the space.
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And in the space, there's new insights.
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There's new information.
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It's where the part of you that's been dominated by the mind has a little room to breathe to express itself.
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You know, a lot of times when I journal, I'll have revelations and breakthroughs within things that I wrote almost as if someone else was writing them.
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I'll literally read something I just wrote and think, where did that come from?
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I didn't know that I knew that or I felt that, which is interesting because you could argue that someone else was writing it through me.
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And maybe you call that your subconscious.
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Maybe you call it intuition or an inner child or a higher power.
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But by slowing down the mind, I made myself available to information that I wasn't available to access before.
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And I wouldn't say that writing bypasses the mind.
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I think it sort of sits next to it.
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It sidesteps the mind and there's a big difference.
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You're still conscious You're still there.
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You're still writing But you've slowed down the machinery enough
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that something else has the possibility of coming through
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And I think that's one of the reasons people will journal about a problem
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that they've been thinking about for weeks and Suddenly write down the answer.
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The answer may have been there the whole time
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They just weren't able to hear it because they were thinking too quickly to be able to.
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Unlock number two, journaling programs your brain and the field.
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So the second reason writing is really powerful is because of the movement of your hands.
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In fact, at a recent event that we had, we encouraged everybody at one point to get off all their computers, pull out a pen and pad and start writing.
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And there's a reason for that.
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There's actually neuroscience that shows that when you write something by hand, You're engaging much more of your brain than when you're typing it or simply thinking about it.
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You're involving the movement of the body in the creation of the thought, and you're building connections in your brain associated with what you're writing.
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In other words, you're not just thinking the idea.
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You're impressing the idea onto your actual neurology.
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You're building the memory in a really, really concrete way.
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And I think there's something much deeper going on here as well because writing is intimately connected to spelling.
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And I know this is gonna sound a little strange to some people, but the ancients understood the power of symbols, of spelling, and spell casting.
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The ancients used very specific geometry and symbology in the form of runes.
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The word rune comes from an Old English root meaning secret or mystery.
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And historically, in occult practices, they were associated with magic.
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So across ancient spiritual and magical traditions, from Egyptian esotericism to the Vikings,
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even early Christianity, people treated the act inscription as something powerful.
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Writing wasn't always understood as simply recording something.
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It could be a part of a prayer, a ritual, an intention, some form of creation.
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And I think there's something really interesting about that because when you write something, you're taking something that was previously a thought form or just an idea,
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and you're beginning to give it physical form, right?
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Think about that.
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You have a thought, nobody can see it, and then your hand moves.
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The pen touches the paper and now it's here in the physical world, right?
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It's material.
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And that's why teachers of the law of attraction, particularly in the early 2000s when everybody was talking about this stuff, would always say, write down your goals.
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Why?
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Because you're impressing yourself through movement into the field.
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You're taking something that exists as thought and you're beginning to crystallize it into physical form.
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I think about it like dropping a stone into a lake.
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The moment the pen touches the paper, there's the first impression and then the ripple goes out.
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And eventually, it can materialize into reality.
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Now, I can't scientifically prove to you that writing something on a piece of paper changes some external energetic field.
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I'm sure somebody could run that experiment.
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But here's what I can tell you.
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It changes you.
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And you're the one who's going to make the decisions, notice the opportunities, have the conversations, and take the actions that create your life.
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So whether you want to understand this neurologically, psychologically, spiritually, or all three, the act of writing matters.
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You're not just recording the thought, you're making an impression with it.
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Unlock number three, journaling gives your emotions permission to flow.
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So the third reason journaling is so powerful is that journaling is a path to emotional freedom.
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Because there are things that we hold inside of ourselves that create blocks.
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And the information is held in the body.
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You're angry, You're jealous.
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You don't feel like you're good enough.
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You're scared.
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Maybe you're resentful towards somebody and you don't want to admit it.
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And sometimes it's really hard to just allow those feelings.
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And so we hold them up.
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We keep them inside.
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So what ends up happening is we resist them.
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We judge them.
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We try to think our way out of them.
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But expressing through writing how you truly feel gives those feelings permission to move.
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Because it's almost impossible to write without feeling.
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Like if I sit down and I actually write, I'm angry.
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And then I write why I'm angry.
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And then I write what I wish I could say.
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And then I write what I'm afraid is going to happen.
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I'm starting to feel something.
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The writing becomes a mechanism that gives permission to the feelings to flow.
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And as the feelings flow, you begin to flow.
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That's the important part.
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Because so much of what we call being stuck is really just energy
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that we're unwilling to allow how to move and journaling gives it movement.
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So you don't have to show it to anybody.
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You don't have to make it sound enlightened.
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You don't have to write what you think you're supposed to feel.
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You can write the truth and the truth has movement in it.
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That's why sometimes you can journal for five, 10, 15, 20 minutes about something that's been bothering you for three months and when you're finished,
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the situation hasn't changed at all, but you have.
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And now you're relating to the situation differently.
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That's freedom.
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Unlock number four, journaling amplifies positive emotions.
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So the fourth unlock is almost the opposite of the third.
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Writing doesn't just give you a mechanism to release the feelings that you don't want to continue carrying.
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It also gives you a way to reinforce the feelings that you want more of.
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So gratitude is a great example.
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You can think, I'm grateful for my wife.
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That's beautiful.
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But the thought takes two seconds.
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Now sit down and write, God, thank you for my wife.
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Thank you for this thing that she did yesterday.
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Thank you for the way she loves me.
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Thank you for the life that we've created.
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So when you do that, you're spending more time in the idea that's motivating the appreciation.
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You're sustaining the neurological experience of appreciation.
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And I think that's the key.
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You're not just thinking about gratitude.
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You're giving yourself the time to actually experience grateful.
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You're expressing it through your body.
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You're moving your hand.
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You're staying in the experience and you're reinforcing that gratitude more deeply into yourself.
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And if you want to use the language that I use, you're imprinting it also into the field.
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So journaling does this really interesting thing.
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It gives what needs to leave a pathway out and it gives what you want to cultivate a pathway in.
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And that's super powerful.
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Unlock number five, journaling deepens your relationship with God.
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Now this may sound like an over promise, but this is what I found to be true, right?
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The fifth reason is probably the most personal for me.
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Journaling can become a form of relationship building with your higher power.
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Could be God, Jesus, Allah, nature, the universe, whatever it is for you.
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If in fact, you want to have a deeper relationship with it.
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I'm not saying you should or you need to, but if you want to, journaling is one of the best ways to commune with your higher power.
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Why?
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Well, think about it.
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If you want to have a deep relationship with someone, if you want to feel connected to someone, if you want to be able to understand and hear someone,
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then that requires regular communication with them.
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Parents, in particular mothers, will talk about how they can sense when their child is in danger, even if they're separated by great distances.
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If you talk to people in intimate relationships where a couple of spent years together, they know each other so well that they can finish each other's sentences.
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There's a kind of sinking of nervous systems that takes place in deep, intimate relationships, and that's based on regular, ongoing, safe, authentic communication.
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And this is actually what led me to develop my own journaling process.
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I've talked about this in other episodes, but people have had such extraordinary results with it that I wanted to share it again here.
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I call communion journaling and it came out of a desire
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that I had a little over a year ago to have a deeper personal relationship with my higher power.
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I wanted a deeper relationship with God.
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I felt like I had a relationship with the universe but it didn't feel very personal.
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I believed in God
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but I wanted to feel a very personal relationship with the God of my own understanding
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and I had this burning desire and then an idea came to me and I dismissed it at first.
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The idea was to wake up early and go down into my podcast studio
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and to to write to write to god and i was like nah
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that feels kind of inconvenient i'm not a big fan of waking up early
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and then my wife said one day a few weeks later hey you know you haven't been sleeping very well
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but rather than just continuing to try to squeeze an extra sleep
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and then sleeping until 7 30
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or 8 why don't you go down in your podcast room
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and journal or something like that i was like no i don't i don't think that's gonna going to happen either.
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And then a few weeks later, I did this really deep transformational breathwork session during which my body literally sat up and I started writing in the air.
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And I was like, okay, I get the message.
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I don't need to be struck by lightning.
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I will get up and I will write.
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So the next day I wake up around six o'clock in the morning.
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I come down to the podcast room.
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I had no idea what I was going to do.
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There was no journaling prompt.
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There was not some process somebody had taught me.
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I literally, I just sat down, I put my pen in my hand
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and I touched the pad of my journal with the pen and I started writing and the words just started flowing.
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And at first I just started thanking God for pretty much everything.
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It was really beautiful.
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It was almost like this long way overdue pen pal letter.
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I was like, God, you gave me all these amazing things in my life, right?
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I don't know that I've ever really sat down and properly said thank you.
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So thank you.
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And so I started thanking God for my wife, for my son, for my business, for my mission, for my house, for my friends, for my sobriety,
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for my awareness, for my consciousness, for my life, for the opportunities that I had.
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And I just kept writing, just poured out of me.
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And what happened was I got so deeply into the frequency of appreciation, not because I was trying to practice gratitude or do a gratitude list, but because I was actually having a conversation.
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And then I had this kind of feeling take over me, very much like my son who was three years old at the time who just asked for this, Daddy, I want this.
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Daddy, I want that.
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And he's relentless about it.
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He knows that if I ask, I'm going to get this thing.
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And I deserve this thing.
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And I'm entitled to this thing.
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Because he's a narcissistic toddler who asked for a lot of things.
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And so once I finished thanking God, I just started asking for things.
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I was like, hey, I want this.
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I want that.
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Here's what I want.
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Give me this.
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Let my work be heard by millions of people.
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Let the building of my business be easy.
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Let my sleep improve.
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Let me have an even more amazing relationship with my wife.
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Just give it to me.
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I want this.
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I want that.
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I was like a spoiled child of God.
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And what was cool was that while I was asking, I had this knowingness that according to God's will,
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I would receive everything I asked for because I knew who I was in relationship with.
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I was asking the creator of all things.
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And I felt that relationship.
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It was almost like I was sitting with God down in my man cave.
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And that changes the energy of asking because you're not sitting there thinking, okay, maybe this will happen, maybe it won't.
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How do I figure out how to make this happen?
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I had this experience that the moment I asked, it was going to be done for me.
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And then after I felt this conviction that I would have the things that I was asking God for, I had another thought.
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It was like, wow, I should probably ask for other people too.
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And so I started praying for other people.
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I know I should pray for other people, but it's not something that I was doing on the regular.
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And man, I saw what I was writing and it was powerful.
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It was beautiful.
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Like you ever hear people like do these powerful prayers, like a really amazing preacher.
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That's what was coming out of my fingertips.
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I was praying for people in my family.
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I was praying for people who I knew were struggling.
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I was praying for people who needed help.
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And then that became my process.
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It wasn't something I sat down and engineered.
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It emerged naturally out of the experience, and it's incredibly simple.
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Number one, I thank God.
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Number two, I ask God.
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And number three, I ask God on behalf of others.
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I pray for other people.
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That's what I call communion journaling.
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It takes me five to 15 minutes depending on what shows up.
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I don't do it every morning, but when I do, man, I come out of this podcast room like lit up for the day.
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I feel connected.
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I feel grateful.
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I feel like I'm in a real relationship with the creator of the universe.
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And honestly, as I'm talking about it right now, I'm wondering why I don't do it every day, I guess, because there are some days where I just have more to learn by suffering.
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But that's how powerful this process is.
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And so I'm begging you to start journaling, not because it's another personal development habit that you're supposed to check off the list,
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but because there's information inside of you that you may not be able to hear at the speed that you're currently moving.
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There are feelings inside of you that need somewhere to go.
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There are thoughts and intentions that become more powerful when you physically impress them onto a page.
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And there may even be a relationship available to you with your higher power, with God, with something greater than yourself that you simply haven't created enough space to experience.
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So my invitation is get a pen, get a pad, give yourself about 15 minutes.
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And if you don't know what to write, start the way that I started.
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Say thank you.
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Ask for what you want and then ask for somebody else and just see what comes through.
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And by the way, before I let you go, this is one great tool that I'm suggesting you try out, communion journaling.
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And I have another one for you.
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I know that about 10,000 of you have gone through it over the last 30 days.
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And the reviews are just amazing.
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There's a link in the description of today's episode.
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It's absolutely free.
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You're going to find a David AI powered assessment.
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It takes three minutes.
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It will give you a full assessment of your current mindset, help you identify your top three limiting beliefs
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and walk you step-by-step through a really powerful tool that we have for transforming your limiting beliefs.
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It's absolutely free.
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It's my gift to you to help you take your personal growth and mindset one step further after today's episode.
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And please, if you haven't yet, subscribe.
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It is the way we're able to get this work out to more and more people.
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We've grown from less than 100,000 subscribers to over half a million this year, and I want you to be a part of that growth with me.
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Just hit the subscribe button and the bell icon so
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that you can get notifications twice a week when new episodes come out.
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And if you love this episode as much as I loved sharing it with you, pay it forward and share it with someone who needs to hear it today.
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I love you so much.
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Thank you for being here with me, and I will see you in the next episode.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 295 sentences and 3622 words to shadow. The speech runs for 18:12. The speaker talks fast, about 199 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- unlock /ʌnˈlɑk/ (verb) — To undo or open a lock or something locked by, for example, turning a key, or selecting a combination.
- pray /pɹeɪ/ (verb) — To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
- gratitude /ˈɡɹæ.tɪ.tud/ (noun) — The state of being grateful.
- connect /kəˈnɛkt/ (verb) — To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.
- podcast /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ (noun) — A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
- prayer /pɹɛɚ/ (noun) — A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity.
- grateful /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/ (adjective) — Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.
- emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ (noun) — A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
- appreciation /əˌpɹiː.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The act of appreciating.
- impress /ɪmˈpɹɛs/ (verb) — To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.
- communion /kəˈmjuːnjən/ (noun) — A joining together of minds or spirits; a mental connection.
- assessment /əˈsɛsmənt/ (noun) — The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed.
- belief /bɪˈliːf/ (noun) — Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
- deeply /ˈdi(ː)pli/ (adverb) — To a deep extent or degree; very greatly.
- impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/ (noun) — The indentation or depression made by the pressure of one object on or into another.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- ask for (verb) — To request; to order.
- think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verb) — To ponder.
- sit down (verb) — To assume a sitting position from a standing position.
- write down (verb) — To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.
- slow down (verb) — To decelerate.
- come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
- come through (verb) — To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 119 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, breathe /bɹiːð/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, appreciation /əˌpɹiː.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: appreciation /əˌpɹiː.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/, underestimate /ʌndɚˈɛs.tɪ.meɪt/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/
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 unlock, pray, gratitude.
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 | they've been thinking · haven't been sleeping |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've heard · hasn't happened · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been dominated · were associated · wasn't always understood |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | facilitates, which is · computer Which is · that, 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.