Shadowing Practice: Stop Trying to “Let Go” of Anxiety. Do This Instead - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This is a technique that I call the anxiety journal.
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Now, most people don't think about taking their anxieties
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and just writing them down and talking about the worst possible thing that can happen.
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On the contrary, people will give you all this advice to just, don't ruminate on anything.
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Let it go.
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Don't think about it.
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Especially, by the way, you know those non -anxious people?
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They're so unbelievably annoying around you.
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Those people who don't worry.
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Yeah, man.
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Yeah, no, just don't worry about it, man it's you know it's probably not going to happen doesn't really matter you know just
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so irritating because that's bad advice for you don't try to do
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that that's actually unnatural a bunch of research by the way shows
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that when you tell people to stop thinking about something that's troubling them they think about it more okay so
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that person in your life is actually making life worse for
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you here's what to do instead think about the five things about which you're suffering some anxiety.
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Okay, now you probably haven't done that before.
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It's going to take some work.
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So go someplace quiet.
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Take out your notebook and say, I'm troubled.
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Right now I'm troubled. About what?
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What is the thing that's really on my heart?
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And define it.
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Let's say that you got kind of a health challenge and you don't know what it is.
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You went to the doctor and the doctor did a bunch of tests and you haven't been feeling right.
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And you're sort of, you're anxious about what it might be even though you don't know.
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Well, you know what?
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Don't run away from that.
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Don't leave it in the sort of the amorphous zone of something might be wrong.
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Write it down.
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Write down your worst fear.
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Write down your paranoid fantasy, what actually it is.
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Or maybe put it in your phone, but password protect the file if you do.
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Define the actual source of your fear.
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Okay?
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So maybe it's like, I went to the doctor and something isn't right.
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And actually, I'm afraid it's going to be something really bad like cancer, right?
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It's probably not, but it might be.
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So part two is actually not just writing down your worst fear.
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It's writing down the different scenarios of what it could be.
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This is nothing.
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This is something mild, or this is something really bad, and write down what it is.
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Those defense planning in the Department of Defense, that's the analysis that they always do.
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They call it best case, worst case, most likely case.
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It's a good place to start.
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You can write down five scenarios if you want, but those three kind of get the job done.
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Then do something that an insurance company would do, which is it looks at the scenarios and it assigns probabilities to them.
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You don't know.
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You don't know.
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But you know, you kind of know.
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And what you find when you start to get better at this exercise is
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that the catastrophic thing
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that was like a phantasm was like a ghost up in the attic bothering
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you making weird noises you know rattling chains at night
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and all that it starts to get a little less bad
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because which what you really recognize
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when you start getting better at this to to quiet those change chains is
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that that the probability of
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that worst case scenario is actually pretty low right it's actually objectively pretty low okay
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so let's say i think it's 20 chance that this is nothing it's just like, it's some transient thing.
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I think there's about 5 % chance that this is something really ghastly.
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And so therefore it's about, I can't remember what I said the first, 20 or 25%.
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The rest of it is just something not so serious that I can take care of, something I can deal with.
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Something that's kind of the ordinary course of business with health, especially as you're getting older, whatever it happens to be.
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Assign those notional probabilities that you probably know more than you think.
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You have a lot of information under your belt because you've been alive for a little while.
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It doesn't mean you're exactly right, but that leads to the next thing to do,
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which is to describe in your journal the strategies in each case.
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What am I actually going to do in each one of these cases?
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Well, if it's nothing, nothing.
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If it's the little thing, it's this.
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And if it's the worst thing, here's what I'm going to do.
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And write down what you would do literally in the worst case scenario.
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Now, what are you doing?
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You are preparing for something that's actually scary.
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This will physiologically move you into the zone temporary, very temporarily of fear instead of anxiety by focusing the anxiety itself.
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Then guess what?
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You'll put that thing away and it won't trouble you nearly as much.
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Until it does again, then you'll take it out and look at it.
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Go on to the next four things that are bothering you in order of trouble.
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Go down the list and what you're going to find is
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when you do this five times and then you look at it once every day
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or two whenever these things are bothering you, you're going to get better and better and better at dealing with your anxiety,
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not by running away from it, not by trying to eliminate it, but by trying to focus it.
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That's the Anxiety Journal exercise.
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It's a well -documented technique.
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I strongly recommend it to my students.
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I use it myself and I recommend it to you.
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And you know what else?
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It's really bracing.
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It really feels awesome.
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It really feels like you're a courageous person when you're doing this because you're able to state, look, this is bothering me,
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but I have an idea how likely it is.
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And even if it happens, I know what I'm going to do.
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And it gives you kind of an empowerment to it, not like you're just running away from something, but you're leaning into it.
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And the reason it feels better is because that's the way your brain and body are supposed to work.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Stop Trying to “Let Go” of Anxiety. Do This Instead”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: worst, anxiety, write, scenario, bothering. This video has 96 sentences and 1047 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:24. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 90% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| scenario noun | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events. |
| bother verb | /ˈbɑðɚ/ | To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for. |
| probability noun | /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/ | The state of being probable. |
| technique noun | /tɛkˈniːk/ | The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements. |
| define verb | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly. |
| anxious adjective | /ˈæŋkʃəs/ | Nervous and worried. |
| assign verb | /əˈsaɪn/ | To designate or set apart (something) for some purpose. |
| temporary adjective | /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/ | Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time. |
| strongly adverb | /ˈstɹɔŋli/ | In a strong or powerful manner. |
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| belt noun | /ˈbɛlt/ | A band worn around the waist to hold clothing to one's body (usually pants), hold weapons (such as a gun or sword), or serve as a decorative piece of clothing. |
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| scary adjective | /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ | Causing fear or anxiety |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
| run away from verb | To avoid or shirk a problem or consequences; to rush to back away from or disclaim responsibility for something. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| take out verb | To remove. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Especially, by the way, you know those non -anxious people?
- They're so unbelievably annoying around you.
- Take out your notebook and say, I'm troubled.
- What is the thing that's really on my heart?
- You are preparing for something that's actually scary.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 40 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/, notional /ˈnoʊʃənəl/, transient /ˈtɹæn.ʃənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
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 anxiety, scenario, bother.
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.