Shadowing Practice: I’ve Meditated 27 Years, These 5 Lessons Change Everything - Learn English Speaking with Video

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27 years ago at the age of six years old, I first sat down to meditate and over the last 27 years, I've had some incredible experiences.

I've had some really difficult moments, some moments where I've wanted to give up, some moments where I thought, is this actually making any difference to me whatsoever?

And I've had some profound realizations and shifts.

So what I thought I'd do today is condense what I've learned into five of the most important

and valuable lessons that I've learned over that 27 years and share them with you in this video.

First one is to know your purpose.

Sounds very obvious, maybe.

To know your purpose in the sense of to understand exactly why you're practicing meditation.

Now, this actually is something that is not so common.

Lots of people come to meditation for different reasons.

Some people just naturally feel like, that's something that I feel like I should do.

Perhaps you've had an awakening and people have said, oh, you probably need to start meditating now.

It might be that you've come through from for more practical reasons through improving your sleep

or calming the mind and these types of things.

But the truth is meditation has one ultimate purpose, one ultimate goal.

And this was discovered really by the great rishis of the past that disappeared off into the forest,

trying to find answers to who and what they are and to what the meaning of life is.

And they subjected themselves to rigorous practices, rigorous many, many hours of meditation.

And they started to raise their consciousness from human consciousness,

base consciousness, to higher and higher levels of consciousness until they started to touch on God consciousness or divine consciousness.

So they ultimately used meditation as a vehicle, as a tool to take them from this belief and conditioning

that I'm a human being and I am a human level of consciousness.

They transcended that to realize that actually, no, all along they have been one with the divine.

They are and have divine consciousness.

So meditation is a sacred tool for that reason.

It's there to help us to find truth.

It's there to help us to realize who and what we've always been.

If you've got that North Star in your mind, if you've got that reasoning, it's not so easy to be pushed off the path because if it's something temporary,

like I need to improve my sleep or I want to de-stress, once those things are resolved, you've not really got a reason to meditate.

That why isn't very strong.

It's a beautiful path.

And having that North Star is really, really important.

The next thing is to measure your life.

One of the traps that we fall into very easily with meditation is that we measure the practice.

So we sit down, we meditate for 10 minutes or half an hour, and then we reflect on it and think, how did it go?

Was it good?

Was it bad?

That's not really that helpful.

It's like a bodybuilder doing some dumbbell curls and then saying, well, was it good?

Was it bad?

It's like neither really.

You just did the thing.

You did the thing that will eventually lead to the outcome you want, but don't focus too much on that, that focus on actually how it's helping you.

So it's not so relevant with the bodybuilder because arguably they don't need the big biceps.

But with us in terms of meditation, look at how it's changing you inwardly.

Don't look so closely at how am I improving within the practice?

Am I reaching higher levels of consciousness?

You know, am I transcending the body?

These things that will happen in time when the time is right, you know, at the time that you're ready, it's not going to potentially happen right away.

I wouldn't even focus on it.

I wouldn't even think about it or worry about it whatsoever.

For me, it took a long, long time before anything like that actually happened.

And when it did, I'd put in an enormous amount of work to make it happen.

So don't focus on those types of things.

What I would suggest, though, is measuring your life.

So looking at how looking at yourself, looking at how you navigate daily life and ask yourself, am I becoming kinder?

Am I becoming more loving?

Am I becoming more considerate?

Am I becoming more composed and less reactive in the sense of something annoys me?

Does it linger with me all day long like it used to?

Or am I able to let go of it after 10 minutes, five minutes, half an hour?

Start measuring your growth by how you're living, how much more you want to do things for other people.

these are the really common ways

that you can start to see yeah I am becoming I am changing I'm growing maybe it's habits

that you have had for many years

that you're starting to let go of it doesn't mean

that you're suddenly perfect it doesn't mean

that the ego is not going to come in

and knock you completely off your path for a week

or a few months

that will happen as well by the way the ego is

very very much like it keeps its head down it stays

calm it makes you feel like oh yeah I've got this I've nailed it

and then it comes out of nowhere and it wipes you off your feet

and then you have to pick yourself up dust yourself down

and get back on the on the wagon again get back on the saddle

and keep going but ultimately you will still be making progress

so it's also important that you don't judge your progress by the fact

that the ego still flares up from time to time because

that also is a big thing it will happen the more you're growing the more you're realizing

that you are actually one with the divine.

The ego doesn't want that.

So it will disrupt you and it will disrupt you when you're weak.

Number three is have faith.

I think one of the traps that we can fall into is this kind of sense of needing constant reassurance, constant evidence that you're progressing.

Sometimes you're not going to see that.

There's going to be many, many times where you're not going to see that or very, very long periods of times when you're not going to notice that.

I mean, I remember going for years, literally years on end, without actually noticing anything really, really tangible about myself that was changing.

I would have a sense of calm after meditation, a beautiful sense of peace that would follow me around for a little while.

I noticed myself in certain situations at work becoming much more focused.

And there were lots about me in very, very subtle ways that was changing.

But I wouldn't say it was all really significant

and long durations of time would pass where it was still these kinds of, yeah, you know, yeah, okay, that's probably from meditation, but maybe it's just,

you know, I slept really well and I'm really into this work that I'm doing.

I could have put it down to other things, but it took time, took a long, long time before for me, at least for for things to become very, very apparent.

But it's well worth the time.

Believe me, it's well, well worth it.

It's it's something that it can't be it can't be done quickly.

Anything that's worth doing in your life, anything that's beautiful, that's transformational in a more permanent way has to take time.

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I love coming back to the idea of bamboo and how bamboo takes many, many years for the root system to grow into the earth.

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I think it's up to five years.

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It spends sort of embedding these deep roots into the ground, setting the foundations up before anything actually rises up above the surface of the ground,

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actually becomes visible.

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and in many ways meditation is a bit like that there's

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so many aspects of ourself that are either being let go of

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or being grown on subtle invisible levels to us

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but they're all incredibly valuable and necessary more than more than valuable they're necessary

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but once they're embedded at some stage you will start to notice things a bit more tangibly

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but don't focus on it or expect it

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just continue doing the things that you're doing and everything will be moving you in the right direction.

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I can promise you that.

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Number four is mastering the mind.

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What I would advise with this, because the mind, my teacher said, and I love the phrase, he said, the mind's very quirky.

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And the mind is very, very quirky.

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And I love the way that he put it.

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The mind is very, very quirky.

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It's very strange.

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It likes to analyze everything.

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It likes to judge everything.

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It likes to overthink everything and it makes a mountain out of a molehill.

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So for us and for the advice

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that I would give you is become uninterested in what the mind is presenting to you.

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Start to see that these thoughts that you have in, these judgments that you have in, these doubts that you have in, they're coming from a part of your mind that is not you.

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They're coming either from habitual patterns of thinking

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that have been trained into you probably from childhood or they're coming from your ego.

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They're coming from the part of you

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that wants you to take a hold of these things

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and let go of this transformational practice that's going to have an impact on the ego ultimately.

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But it's important for us to start to realize that that's not us, to create some distance from it inwardly

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and get to the point where we can observe it and just almost laugh at it.

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Nowadays, if I have these thoughts or judgments about things, I'll just smile inwardly.

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I'll smile.

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I'll say, I'm not following that.

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I can see where that's from.

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That's not me.

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That's coming from the ego.

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It's not coming from discernment.

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If it's not coming from this place of love, kindness, selflessness, positivity, uplifting, beautiful thoughts,

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it's coming from something that I'm not too interested in.

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So I'm not going to give it the time.

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I'm not going to give it the attention.

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But it's easy for us humans to follow these thoughts.

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And it's important that we don't.

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So start to become the master of your own mind by not following it, actually observing it, realizing that it's not you and

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that you're much greater than that and offering it to the divine for transformation.

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So when you notice that these thoughts are coming up, offer these thoughts to a higher power.

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It's you anyway.

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So say to the divine in your mind or whatever the authority is, I'm really struggling with my thinking today, my overthinking, these judgments, these fears,

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these doubts, may I offer them to you?

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Just say that in your mind, consider it done and just let go.

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Keep on if you need to, you can repeat that process but you will be helped, you will be helped in some capacity.

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And then finally quality over technique.

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I'm going to put tech.

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Quality over tech.

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And really what I mean is that there are many techniques of meditation

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and the details of these techniques do make a difference.

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But what often happens is that the mind over, over emphasizes all of the intricacies that are important

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and focuses all of its attention on these different intricacies

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and am I doing it right and is this in the right place

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and is that in the right place it becomes its own problem

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so what I would suggest to kind of overcome

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that is to understand that the quality of your meditation is much more valuable

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and important than the technique itself although the technique does make a big difference once you've established technique even

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if it's something really really beautifully simple like following the breath

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try not to overthink it try not to overthink all of the little details.

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Am I doing it right?

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Am I following the breath at the right point?

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Am I breathing in the correct way?

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It's all of this overanalyzing,

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overthinking, over worrying, focusing too heavily on the technique that actually creates more barriers for ourselves.

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The more that we can strip everything back, simplify everything, remove all of that mental rubbish,

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let it all go and focus more on the reasoning behind your meditation.

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So I always recommend going into the practice

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and doing it as an offering to the divine or to the higher authority you connect with, whether it's God or your higher self.

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When you go, as if it's that Zoom meeting, you're sitting down, you're giving your attention, you're giving your energy, you're giving your love,

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you're giving your time, that valuable time that you could have spent doing anything, you're now giving it to God.

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That's one of the most beautiful things that anyone can do.

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And it has a transformative effect because it takes meditation away from becoming an egoic thing, becoming a thing that actually,

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in a way, becomes its own barrier because you start doing it for yourself from an ego point of view, if you're not careful.

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Not you and not everyone, of course, but it can become like that. So

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if you can go into meditation with this very pure intent

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of I'm actually just going to do this to give my time, to give my love, to give my energy.

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And I'm not going to have any expectations.

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I'm not going to follow my mind.

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I'm going to have just this simple faith.

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It doesn't matter what happens, what doesn't happen.

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I'm going to have this simple faith.

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I'm going to judge my practice, measure my practice more by how I'm conducting myself during the day with other people, how I am with myself.

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and I'm going to know

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that the purpose is for the ultimate realization of myself as the divine and I'm going to just keep going with that.

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That is what I would recommend.

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Focus on these, write these down, have these on your mind as you practice and it will make a huge difference.

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If you need more help and support, feel free to check out my school, The Inner Journey School.

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I'll leave a link in the description.

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Failing that, I'll see you on the next one.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I’ve Meditated 27 Years, These 5 Lessons Change Everything”. This video has 195 sentences and 2459 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:09. The speaker talks fast, about 187 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
meditation noun	/mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/	A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation.
consciousness noun	/ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/	The state of being conscious or aware; awareness.
overthink verb		To think or analyze too much.
meditate verb	/ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/	To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.
inwardly adverb	/ˈɪnwɚdli/	In an inward manner; to or toward the inside or to oneself.
quirky adjective	/ˈkwɜːki/	Given to quirks or idiosyncrasies; strange in a somewhat silly, awkward manner, potentially cute.
bodybuilder noun	/ˈbɑ.diˌbɪl.dəɹ/	A person who uses diet and exercise to build an aesthetically muscular physique, in order to compete in bodybuilding.
embed verb	/ɪmˈbɛd/	To lay (something) as in a bed; to lay in surrounding matter; to bed.
intricacy noun	/ˈɪn.tɹɪ.kə.si/	The state or quality of being intricate or entangled.
transcend verb	/tɹæn(t)ˈsɛnd/	To pass beyond the limits of something.
transformational adjective		Of, pertaining to or leading to transformation.
disrupt verb	/dɪsˈɹʌpt/	To throw into confusion or disorder.
bamboo noun	/bæmˈbu/	Any of the fast-growing grasses of the Bambusoideae subfamily, characterized by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem.
rigorous adjective	/ˈɹɪɡəɹəs/	Showing, causing, or favoring rigour/rigor; scrupulously accurate or strict; thorough.
realization noun	/ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/	An act of figuring out or becoming aware.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
sit down verb	To assume a sitting position from a standing position.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up verb	To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
give up verb	To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
push off verb	To go away; to get lost.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Don't look so closely at how am I improving within the practice?
Am I reaching higher levels of consciousness?
You know, am I transcending the body?
Am I becoming more loving?
Am I becoming more considerate?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've had · I've learned · you've had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was discovered · be pushed · are resolved

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 87 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: bodybuilder /ˈbɑ.diˌbɪl.dəɹ/, intricacy /ˈɪn.tɹɪ.kə.si/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, whatsoever /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/, considerate /kənˈsɪdəɹət/

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 meditation, consciousness, overthink.

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 →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?