Shadowing Practice: Neuroscientist: Do THIS While You Exercise (No Extra Time Needed) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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If you only have so much time in the day and you're wanting to partake in, you know, habits that are going to benefit your mind,
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why would I spend time doing something like meditation when I could do that same amount of time, spend that same amount of time doing exercise
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where I know that it's particularly vigorous exercise is going to be beneficial for my brain, it's going to increase things like neuroplasticity,
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which we'll talk about, but also positive effect. So that's the question.
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Okay, great question, and thank you so much for asking it, and I particularly like the way you posed it.
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My answer simply would be that you don't have to choose.
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You can do both together, and it won't take any extra time.
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And so exercise, physical exercise, particularly vigorous aerobic exercise of the sort that you're describing,
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is indeed, as you are hinting, the most empirically well -validated strategy for increasing neuroplasticity.
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And we can talk more about neuroplasticity in a few moments.
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But neuroplasticity is neutral with respect to its impact on our mind and on our well -being.
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If you increase neuroplasticity and you're thinking a lot of unwholesome thoughts,
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toxic thoughts, if you're in an environment which is stressful,
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you will increase the likelihood of being stressed and of being challenged
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because the increase in neuroplasticity is increasing the extent to which those negative thoughts are being encoded.
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And so simply increasing neuroplasticity in and of itself is neutral with respect to our mind.
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What the real challenge is,
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is being able to increase neuroplasticity and simultaneously increase our wholesome or virtuous mind state,
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if you will.
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And we can actually do both together.
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So let me give you a very simple kind of invitation.
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Next time you do physical exercise, spend a few moments as you are ramping up to do the exercise.
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It may be putting on your sneakers, getting yourself ready, or it can even be during the exercise itself.
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Reflect on how doing this physical exercise is beneficial not only for yourself,
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but it's beneficial for all of those that you touch directly or indirectly.
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That is, it's a radical act of generosity for you to be improving your health.
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It's not just something good for you
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but it's something good for the entire social network
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that you interact with which in your case is really large um
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and so in invoking that kind of mind state
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or um we we um call it a mindset uh uh is uh
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which is a mindset of generosity and altruism is filling your mind with this virtuous,
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wholesome motivation while you're doing something that will increase your neuroplasticity.
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That is the ideal combination.
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This is something we've called contemplative aerobics.
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So just, I do think about positive things about myself when I am preparing for exercise.
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In fact, that's almost solely what I'm thinking about, how this is going to benefit me, how I'm going to be in a better mood, how I'm going to focus better, how it's good for my cardiovascular health my brain aging.
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The idea of how it's good for everyone else, how me improving myself is also going to affect the way I interact with people,
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that is a very new concept to me.
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And why is that so beneficial for well -being?
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Because it connects you with others, which is one of the core pillars of well -being.
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In 2023, the then U .S.
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Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued the first health advisory ever issued
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by a public health officer in the United States on loneliness and social isolation.
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One of the things he called out in that report is
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that loneliness is a greater risk factor for premature mortality than is smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
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Loneliness gets under the skin and affects our biology.
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And the reverse of that, social connection, also gets under our skin and affects our biology.
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We know that connecting with others is anti -inflammatory.
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Practices which help us connect to others,
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actually change our biology in very meaningful ways that are really important for our mental and physical health.
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Does the act of just, I guess, this contemplative aerobics, and what sounds to me like also,
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you know, you said altruistic behavior, compassion, I mean, thinking about how you're improving your health and how that's going to improve the health of others,
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does that somehow just thinking about that help you become more social or connected to others, or how does that work?
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Yes, if it's done on a regular basis,
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systematically as a practice with intentional focusing of the mind on those topics,
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the answer is unequivocally yes we've conducted randomized controlled trials where we have actually randomly assigned people to strategies
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that engage in these practices compared to those who are doing another kind of strategy.
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And we've looked at hard -nosed measures of altruistic behavior.
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We've also looked at the brain using direct measures of brain function
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and structure using mri and we've shown in in hard nose randomized controlled trials
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that it doesn't take much to actually change one's behavior
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and one's biology but you need to do it on a regular basis it's not
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and just like physical exercise you know
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that you can't work out for a couple of weeks
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and then think that the improvements that you may have gleaned from
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that are going to last forever if you stop working out.
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It's a practice that you continue to do for hopefully the remainder of your life.
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And similarly with this, these are practices that we envision people doing for the rest of their life.
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And I liken it to brushing our teeth.
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When humans first evolved, none of us were brushing our teeth.
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And yet most people.
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I'm sure every listener of this podcast spends at least a few minutes a day brushing their teeth.
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It's not part of our genome.
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We've learned to do that.
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And the data show that if we spend even as short a time as we spend brushing our teeth, nourishing our mind and our heart, this world would be a different place.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 76 sentences and 1030 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:25. The speaker talks at a steady 139 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| brush noun | /bɹʌʃ/ | An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including… |
| biology noun | /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | The study of all life or living matter. |
| beneficial adjective | /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Helpful or good to something or someone. |
| loneliness noun | /ˈloʊnlinəs/ | A feeling of depression resulting from being alone or from having no companions. |
| neutral adjective | /ˈnuː.tɹəl/ | Not taking sides in a conflict such as war; nonaligned. |
| interact verb | /ɪn.təˈɹækt/ | To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone). |
| mindset noun | /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ | A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one. |
| generosity noun | /ˌd͡ʒɛn.əˈɹɑ.sə.ti/ | The trait of being willing to donate money, resources, or time. |
| wholesome adjective | /ˈhoʊl.səm/ | Promoting good physical health and well-being. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| extent noun | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | A range of values or locations. |
| 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… |
| ideal adjective | /aɪˈdi(ə)l/ | Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea. |
| mood noun | /muːd/ | A mental or emotional state, composure. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
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 | we've called · we've conducted randomized · we've looked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is indeed · being stressed · being encoded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | environment which is · others, which is · those who are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as we've, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: brush /bɹʌʃ/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, generosity /ˌd͡ʒɛn.əˈɹɑ.sə.ti/, similarly /ˈsɪm.ə.lə.li/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like connect, brush, biology.
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.