Shadowing Practice: OVERTHINKING STOPS NOW (Watch This Video) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This video will cure your overthinking.
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A sad study came out a few years ago from Stanford
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that said that 58 out of every 60 minutes we are either thinking about the past or the future.
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Are you like this?
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Are you an overthinker?
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Well, if you want to cure your overthinking, this is the video for you.
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Now, there are many ways to quiet the overthinking mind that absolutely do help.
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They work, right?
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Supplementation, meditation, journaling, breathwork, right?
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If you're overthinking, then you're also under breathing.
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I have courses about all of that in the description below.
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They really do help, but without what I'm about to share with you in this video, they won't stick.
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You see, the mind is a terrible thing to overuse.
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Overthinking is a problem, right?
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It's a problem that has existed for as long as humans have existed.
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Even Mark Twain, many years ago, said, I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, most of which never happened.
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is the art of creating problems that don't exist.
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See, you must realize one thing, the mind is a great servant, but a dangerous master.
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And the problem is you are probably being controlled by your mind.
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But if you want to end your overthinking once and for all, then you are in the right place.
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Watch this video to the end.
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Once upon a time, there was a king who had the most beautiful but very wild horse.
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Now, this horse could not be tamed.
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The king decreed that he would handsomely reward anybody who could subdue his stallion.
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Many people tried with all their strength but none was strong enough to overcome the animal.
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Even the mightiest were thrown off and injured.
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Well some time passed until one day the king saw the horse meekly obeying some newcomer's instructions.
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The king was amazed and demanded to know how this man had succeeded where so many had failed.
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The horse tamer replied, well king, instead of fighting your stallion, I simply let him run free to his heart's content.
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And eventually he became fatigued and submissive.
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It was then no problem to befriend your horse and gain command.
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Now your mind is just like that horse.
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If you fight and wrestle with it, you will never achieve mastery over it.
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So you must adopt the wise horse tamer's method.
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Let the mind follow its impulses and tendencies without restriction until it becomes ready and willing to accept our authority.
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Give the mind free reign.
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Don't suppress it, merely watch it and get to know it.
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You see, to quiet the mind by force is as pointless as trying to flatten out the ocean by force, right?
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You just make more waves.
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What you resist will persist.
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So the secret is do not try to stop the waves, but allow the waves because the nature of the ocean is to have waves.
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And the nature of your mind is to have thoughts.
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You can't think your way out of overthinking.
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It is only by stopping, right?
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A full stop.
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Place your attention back in a pure present awareness state
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and the mind will automatically steal because you are no longer feeding it with your attention.
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You're no longer making waves.
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Present awareness is the answer.
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There's an ancient story from the Buddha and a reporter.
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He goes up to the Buddha and asks him, Sir, are you a god?
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To which the Buddha says, no. The reporter asks, okay, are you a saint?
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The Buddha says, no. The reporter then says, what are you?
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I am awareness.
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There's another story where it was the master's day of silence and a traveler had begged for a word of wisdom, something that would guide him through his journey.
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Now the master, he nodded and took out a sheet of paper and wrote a single word on it, handed it to him.
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Awareness.
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The visitor was confused.
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Sir, this is too brief.
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What does this mean?
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Could you please expand on it a bit?
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The Master took the paper back and wrote, Awareness, awareness, awareness.
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But what do these words mean, said the stranger helplessly.
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The Master reached out for the paper and wrote, Awareness, awareness, awareness means awareness.
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See, we live in a world of always doing and fixing, which is why I love Anthony DeMello's book, which is titled quite boldly, Stop Fixing Yourself.
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In this book, he says, simply be aware of yourself and things naturally fix themselves.
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Now, how do we cultivate this awareness?
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How do we do it?
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Well, it's not a doing as much as it is a being.
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You have to know who you are.
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And I don't mean with a thought.
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You see, a thought about a tree is not a tree.
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It's a thought about a tree.
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A thought about God is not God.
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It's a thought about God.
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And so a thought about you is not you.
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It's a thought about you.
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You see, who you are is prior to thought.
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You see, most people live their lives believing that they are the voice in their hand, right?
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This chatterbox.
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But that's not true and most people they never investigate.
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They've taken it on as fact, as true.
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But you are not the voice in your head.
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Because if you were the voice in your head then who is observing the voice in your head?
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Because anything you can observe you cannot be.
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This is why the Zen monks have a riddle that goes, if you see the Buddha on the road what do you do?
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And the answer is kill him.
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Because if the Buddha is anything observable or outside of you it is not you.
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It is an illusion is not truth.
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In order to tame the monkey mind or the elephant of our mind, we must simply watch it from the standpoint of awareness as consciousness.
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And here's the important part.
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You must watch the good thoughts and the bad thoughts, right?
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The good thoughts especially, they are seductive, right?
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They can trap you, right?
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What starts off as nectar can eventually become poison.
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So watch both because none of them are you.
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Who you are is the pure witness before a thought because you observe the coming and going of all thoughts.
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So you must be prior to thoughts.
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There's a story that comes from the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi.
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Many years ago there was a traveler who had taken about three flights to India.
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To get to India he had to go up a mountain and he finally found this man, this guru named Ramana Maharshi.
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And so after a few weeks he finally gets a chance to sit with Ramana Maharshi and talked to him.
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When he sits with him, he asks him, he says, Ramana, master, can you tell me who I am?
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And Ramana, he looks at him and he says, go back to where you came.
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And this shocked the man, right?
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It shocked everybody who was in the room.
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They say, go back to where you came.
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This is, this man took all of these flights and traveled all this way to see you.
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And you say, go back to where he came.
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How, how insensitive.
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But what he meant by go back to where you came.
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Go back to that place before ideas, before you created an identity of who you think you are, before the stories.
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Go back before all of that.
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Go back.
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Go back before thoughts.
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Go back to where you came.
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Now, I love this story because what happens when you go back?
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Well, you find out without a doubt that you are not the thoughts.
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Anything you observe cannot be you.
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You see, the brain is not a creator.
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It is a receiver, and I'll prove it to you.
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Close your eyes.
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Take a deep breath.
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Now tell me what your next thought is going to be.
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Go ahead, pause this video and do it.
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You see, what you find is it is impossible to predict your next thought because you didn't create it.
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So when you say my thoughts, that's actually incorrect because it's not yours.
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It simply came to you.
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Nisargadatta Maharaj said, The problem is you think you have thoughts.
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No, thoughts happen.
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They're like farts.
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They just kind of pop up.
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You know this.
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We all intuitively know this.
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This is why when you forget something, you say, oh, it'll come back.
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It will come back.
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Right?
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You know you're not creating it.
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You are receiving it.
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A close disciple of Ramana Maharshi said, whatever kind of thought arises, have the same reaction.
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Not me, not my business.
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It can be a good thought or bad thought.
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Treat them the same way.
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I love the analogy of the moon.
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See, the moon appears to give off its own light.
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But upon investigation, you find out that the moon has no light of its own.
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The sun is the source which gives it its power.
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And just like that, the mind appears to give off its own energy, but it gets its power from consciousness.
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Some call it the self.
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The mind appears to be in control, but you oxygenate it.
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You give your mind life with your attention.
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One of the most powerful techniques is a phrase from Ramana Maharshi.
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He says, ask yourself, to whom do these thoughts come to?
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To whom do these thoughts come to?
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I sat for weeks, months doing this, asking myself, to whom do these thoughts come to?
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After many weeks, after many months, the question itself, it seemed to disappear.
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And I was simply present.
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No thought, no me, no idea of me.
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This is a very powerful pointing if you stick with it.
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When you do this, you find out what you think you are, you are not.
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You see, you have a body, but you are not the body.
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There is something that observes the aging process of the body that itself doesn't age.
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Your awareness of aging hasn't aged.
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You had the same awareness when you were two as when you were 22.
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It's the awareness that we want to stay with.
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You see, you have a mind.
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You are not the mind.
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There is something that can observe the thinking process that must be before the thoughts happen.
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And the final tip I want to give you is what happens when you do these practices, you see a cultivation of trust, a trust in the way things are.
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You see, the intensity of your overthinking is in direct proportion to the intensity of your desire, your desire for a certain outcome.
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It is the attachment to the outcome that creates overthinking.
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But once you realize that all is well and unfolding as it should, you find peace.
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You find peace in the now.
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Many years ago there was a king and the king had many counselors
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but one counselor in particular he loved he trusted very dearly
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and this counselor would always tell the king say king all is well
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and unfolding as it should right he would say all is well
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and unfolding as it should now the other counselors they absolutely hated
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that this counselor had such a close relationship to the king right they were jealous
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so one day the king he was getting his royal haircut
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and the royal barber nicked the king as he was shaving his beard.
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Freak accident, almost hit a vein, and the king, he had to get stitches, right?
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Well, the other counselors, they knew this was their moment.
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This was their moment to sabotage the other counselor.
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So they waited until everybody was together, and they asked the close councilman, they said, what do you think of the king's almost tragic accident?
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And the counselor said, he said, well, what do I think?
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I think all is well and unfolding as it should.
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The king got upset.
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He's like, what?
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All is well and unfolding as it should.
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What do you mean?
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I almost, I almost died.
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All this blood came out.
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I have permanent scar stitches.
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Guards, guards, lock him up, lock him in the, the, the darkest, deepest dungeon.
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Quite a reaction.
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Well, later that day, the king, he was so upset.
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He wanted to just clear his mind.
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So he would often take his horse out, just ride, you know, just to kind of get into flow and just go out and get into nature.
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So he rode his horse, he rode, he rode, he rode, he'd lost track of where he was.
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And pretty soon he was outside of his kingdom and he was in a land of the cannibals.
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And before he looked up to recognize where he was, he got snatched off of his horse by a cannibal.
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Well, they tie the king up and later that night they're gonna, what cannibals do, they eat people.
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So they tie him up and they get ready to roast him.
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And before they put him over the fire, one of the cannibals, he looks at the king's neck and he sees a scar and he says, oh, we can't, we can't sacrifice him.
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He's not worthy of our gods.
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We can't eat him.
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He's impure.
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Let him go.
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so the king he takes his horse and he finds his horse
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and he takes it and he rides he rides he rides back back to the castle
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and he's thinking he's like oh man my counselor was right
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had i not got this scar they would have surely eaten me
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so he says he gets to the castle he says guards
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guards let him out of the jail you know what i
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will go i will let him out give me the key so he goes down to the deepest, darkest dungeon where he left his counselor.
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And he opens the gate and he says, "'Counselor, you were right.
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You were right.
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When I took my horse out, I got attacked.
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I got captured by these cannibals and they were going to eat me, but they saw the scar, so they didn't eat me.
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You were right.
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All is well and unfolding as it should.'" And the counselor, he was just in a cell.
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He was in meditation and he said, "'Yeah, but that's not all, king.'" And the king says, "'Well, what do you mean?' He says,
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well, who is the one who normally accompanies you on horseback when you want to free your mind?
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He says, you are.
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He says, yes, that's right.
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And had you not thrown me in this deep, dark dungeon, I would have been there with you and they would have sacrificed me instead.
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All is well and unfolding as it should.
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So I want to leave you with a practice.
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It is one of my most powerful practices to awaken to this awareness, to come into presence.
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It's a technique that particularly aligns with the Western mentally focused mind and it is called neti neti.
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So neti neti is a Sanskrit term meaning not this, not this.
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In layman's terms it means that
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if you want to know who you are then you have to know who you are not and discard it.
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You see anything you think you are you are not because it is simply a thought observed by you.
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Now when you do this you come to a place of silence.
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You don't find the answer, the question spontaneously combusts and you are left with silence.
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And as the great Sufi poet Rumi said, silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
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So practice this with me.
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I want you to sit comfortably in a quiet place, relax your shoulders, allow your eyes to close, take a deep breath.
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And as you breathe in, think to yourself, I am.
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And as you exhale, think to yourself, here.
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So I want you to repeat this for a few minutes.
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You breathe in, I am.
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You breathe out, here.
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I am, here.
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I am, here.
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Notice how your mind and spirit respond to this simple declaration.
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Now without using your thoughts, associations, perceptions, emotions, or memories, are you black?
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Are you white? Are you neither?
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Are you a man?
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Are you a woman? Or neither?
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Are you a spiritual being?
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Are you a human being? Or neither?
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Start observing the voice in your head going on blah blah blah speaking without your permission.
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Do not feed into these thoughts and do not reject them.
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Simply observe them.
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Come to a state of relaxed nowness, the feeling of beingness.
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Simply become the pure observer, the witness, the background.
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Without trying to change anything, do not even try to translate your thoughts into words.
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Just stay in the silence, the space by which sensations flow.
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Your birthright.
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Come home to a place that you never left.
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Thank you.
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Who Is This Video For?
This video is perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners aiming to boost their english speaking practice while exploring meaningful topics. Whether you’re working on fluency, expanding vocabulary, or mastering natural expression, the conversational tone and relatable content make it ideal for shadowing—repeating phrases aloud to mimic rhythm and intonation. It’s especially great for those who want to learn English with videos that blend life advice with language growth.
Words & Idioms Worth Stealing
Here are standout expressions to add to your toolkit:
- Overthinking: Excessively analyzing thoughts or situations. Example: "Her overthinking kept her up at night."
- Subdue: To bring under control. Example: "The trainer tried to subdue the wild dog."
- Free rein: Unrestricted freedom. Example: "The team was given free rein to innovate."
- What you resist will persist: Fighting a problem makes it worse. Example: "Instead of avoiding stress, accept it—what you resist will persist."
- Present awareness: Focusing on the current moment. Example: "Meditation helps build present awareness."
How to Get the Accent Right
The speaker uses a clear, conversational tone with natural pauses—perfect for practicing the shadowing technique. Here’s how to nail it:
- Intonation on questions: Notice how the voice rises on "Are you like this?" and "Are you an over thinker?" Mimic this to sound natural in casual speech.
- Stress on key words: Emphasize words like "terrible," "dangerous," and "mastery" to convey emphasis, as the speaker does. This adds depth to your shadow speech.
- Pacing: The speaker slows down for storytelling (e.g., the king and horse anecdote). Practice matching this rhythm to improve fluency. Use a shadowing site to replay sections and compare your pace.
- Linking sounds: Listen for connected speech, like "out a few years ago" (pronounced "outafew years ago"). Repeating these links will make your speech flow more naturally.
By focusing on these elements, you’ll not only improve your accent but also build confidence in real-world English communication.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being controlled · could not be tamed · were thrown |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has existed · have known · They've taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | anybody who could · fixing, which is · one who normally |
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.