Shadowing Practice: the illusion of doubt - Learn English Speaking with Video

Why do we instill more confidence in our doubt than in our hope, than in our ideal intentions?

And when I say that, I really just mean that all doubt is, is really an illusion that we feed ourselves constantly.

And I don't mean not to say that everyone is doubtful, but to say that doubt itself is confidence.

In the same way that we're doubtful of our ability to be confident, we're confident in that doubt. And.

I'm recognizing that who we are or more so how we tend to express ourselves and how we go towards our desires,

how we go towards our goals and aspirations is not

so much representative of the world around us as it is the world within.

as it is our most applied thoughts

because in a very real way all the self is is

your most applied thoughts it's what you feed yourself most readily

it's what you give to yourself on a daily basis

and sometimes you know it feels like there is no choice

in the matter it feels like you know we're sort of given a narrative given a plot given a script

and we are sort of forced to play this

and i think it doesn't really come until you recognize

that you're playing a role that you're recognizing you're not a role to be played but a person to be

you know i think a lot of us accept the way

that we are and i don't mean

that to say like we recognize our negativity

and we say oh i accept that

and we're content with it we accept ourselves in a sense to say we think

that we have no ability to change what currently is when

when it comes to ourselves or what was when it comes to ourselves and that's an illusion in and of itself

because we always have the capability to change we always have the capability to progress

and move forward into to things that we have yet to become into greater ideas

and this is something that i talk about quite often

and some of my friends some of the people i interact

with on a regular basis can attest sometimes i just go out

and say like all we're ever doing is living in someone's idea

if you recognize pretty much how we interact the the world

we live in the society structure systems etc etc somebody's idea

and i don't mean

that to say oh it's foreboding it's impending we have this big idea pressed upon us

but to say i don't think we're sort of taught to think for ourselves i don't think

that we're taught to give ourselves any type of validity

when it comes to our own uh mental stimulations our own ideas our own drives passions

and uh desires and i think that's where the root of our doubt is from

because we don't give any of our thoughts

and actions validity until other people sort of give that to us

and that's what stops us in the first place you know the idea

that we have to wait um for anything but ourselves

because all we're ever doing is waiting on ourselves

and the way the best way that i can think about this is

even if somebody was to tell you that your idea was great if you didn't believe them,

it didn't matter and that has to show us at the very least,

it's not so much that other people are saying it, but it's that they're saying what we actually desire to hear.

They're saying the things that we want to be true of our lives

and they're saying it in a way that's acceptable

and I recognize this with myself i'm constantly looking for confirmation

bias i'm constantly looking for things to confirm uh my desires

and the actions that i want to take you know

and in doing

that you know you sort of have to open yourself up to to the truth of it

and the truth is you've already

accepted part of it you've accepted

that part of it is possible you've opened yourself up to the possibility

and i think a lot of us recognize things are possible

and that brings me to the whole idea of the illusion of choice we have

so many choices laid out in front of us

so many different potential paths and we recognize these and we recognize

that we have a multitude of things

that we can actually endeavor ourselves towards your life can tend

so many ways you can be so many ways but in recognizing

that we have so many choices in recognizing that we have this

a lot of us remain stagnant and it's not

because we don't care about ourselves we don't have love for ourselves

or we don't want to change or we don't want to improve

or we don't want this that that and other it's simply because we already are making a choice

and we don't recognize it.

Who you are is a choice that you're making constantly because you're experiencing yourself.

And I don't mean not to say that everything that we experience in regards to ourselves is our fault.

Of course, we have certain impressions, certain ideas that are given to us by other people, and we accept them.

And part of us chooses to accept them, whether that be because we were inclined to or

because that's all we know or that's the first thing

that we were told or that's the thing

that we were told most readily or the thing

that we tell ourselves most readily regardless of which i think

that it is important to reference the past to recognize where

we came from to recognize the result of what we have fed ourselves previously

and i think sometimes in trying to overcome the past we focus on it we dwell on it We perpetuate it.

And, you know, we understand a lot of things in hindsight.

We understand what sort of brought us down in the first place, maybe, or what caused us to do this, or at the very least,

we recognize that something caused.

But I think in constantly thinking about the past, we don't do much, you know,

and I don't mean that to say that it has no significance again

but to say that nothing is done without present intention

there are no fruits of labor

if we don't at first experience the fruits fruits of our present intention

and what that means to me is recognizing

that a lot of the things

that we desire we already have partially given to ourselves

because we've opened our mind up to it

and my whole idea is we shouldn't be giving in part especially

if it's what we want to fully experience you know we

get put part of ourselves into the lives we live

and we get part of ourselves out you put part of

yourselves into your desires your events your circumstances in life

and a lot of us do that in a rut of self -protection we think

that or at least maybe i'm just speaking about myself

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think that if i only put part of myself into the situation

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and it goes wrong then part of me still saved it's part of me is still okay

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but the truth is when you only put part of yourself in

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you're already harming yourself because you're already allowing that doubt or

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that negative viewpoint of yourself to to fester and i don't mean

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that to say be cautious and like bet all your money on one thing

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because you don't doubt it i don't mean that at all i mean of course

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discernment honesty um truth with whatever you're you're putting yourself into but

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when you only put part of yourself in you only get part of yourself out

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when you put yourself fully in you get yourself fully out

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because to try your best and give your best to the circumstances

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or the life that you're living or anything in that regard

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is to be able to at least tell yourself or say to yourself that you did what you could

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and i know that's an easy scape but it's the only one that we can truly grant ourselves

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it's the only solace that i think can truly pacify or bring us to a certain peace and

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at the end of the day i think we just need to give ourselves more validity in our own perspective

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and our own realization that the things

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that we actually desire are all possible we live in a world full of possibility there are

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so many people who fail yes but there are also

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so many people who prosper and the people that prosper typically talk about how they really just gave it their all

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or they put themselves all into what they were doing and in my own experience

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especially recently i've been trying to put my all into not

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necessarily like every single thing i'm doing i don't mean

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that to say like we have to fill our entire day up with tedious tasks

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but to say if we are going to rest we must be present

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while resting i think a lot of times we allow our mind to be compartmentalized in various different areas

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and we separate our energy from from

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the world or from our ability to do something with it like

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if i'm doing my work and i want to focus on studying for example

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but i'm constantly thinking about what i'm doing after studying or

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if i'm constantly thinking about something that happened in the past

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i'm already losing my ability to truly retain and truly give myself to what i'm doing And in that way, it often takes longer.

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It often feels more tedious.

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It often feels like something that I shouldn't, not shouldn't be doing, but don't want to be doing.

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and that's that's another uh thing that i i've realized too is all feelings that we have

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have the ability to be replicated in our head

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or have the ability to be based in many different things the same person

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that can look at studying as tedious can look at it as adventurous and fun

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and I think there are so many illusions

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when it comes to the choices

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that we have the illusion of choice the illusion of decision

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and when we are feeling certain ways about things

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and I don't mean immoral things I don't mean somebody directly harming you I don't mean anything like

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that but I mean the subtle shifts in perspective that would allow us to live our life

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enjoy with a certain degree of intimacy that would allow it to be lived rather than thought

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and i think it's a beautiful experience to sort of be able to give yourself to the experience

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because if you give yourself to the experience you're really only giving yourself back to yourself

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because you are what you experience

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to say that you are your most applied thought is to say

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that you're experiencing your thoughts

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and that's seldom what we what we experience you know i

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think presence um at least in my perspective is one of

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the only ways to actually experience the world for what it is

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or at least get an opportunity to choose what this world could be for you

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like i don't know just waking up in the morning some

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of us you know feel like we're waking up on the

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wrong side of the bed some of us instantaneously grab our phones or our devices

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and we sort of plunge ourselves into a world of other people's ideas

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and expression and i don't mean that other people's ideas and expression is negative at all but

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when we never take the time to ground ourselves in our

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own idea our own truth our own decision our own feeling about ourselves then we only experience

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the world around us in an external sense like oh i'm

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not going to be happy until this goes my way

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and this goes my way or i need my morning to go this way

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that way and

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that way i need to check off a bunch of lists

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a bunch of boxes before i can feel content in my

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morning feel content in my life feel content in what i'm doing for myself but present investment never required any checklist

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if we're actually genuinely present with what we're doing we can

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give ourselves the spoils of our harvest as soon as we begin planting

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what that means to me is recognizing

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that we're constantly investing in the world around it we're constantly

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investing in ourselves you know every single thought is a seed in bloom

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and sometimes the seed in bloom never see the light of day

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because the light of day in this analogy is our own

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awareness is our own ability to look at our own ideas

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and own thoughts and decide whether or not they're contributing

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and whether or not we actually want them to apply to us

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and i don't mean

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that to say we have to be constantly monitoring our thoughts in our head

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but at the very least we have to sit with ourselves at some point in our lives at some point

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and decide for ourselves who we want to be

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and how we want to express ourselves and how we want to present ourselves and how we want to feel about ourselves.

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And the second we find contentment, the second we actually allow

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that decision to be there is the second our mind is going to start looking for avenues to bridge those gaps.

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the mind is a great tool

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because whatever we feed it most readily is what it constantly looks for what it constantly finds

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if you're constantly thinking about the look of some i don't

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even know how to explain it like i can just talk about feeling negativity

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if our mind is constantly tended towards negativity

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and we're constantly thinking about the negative circumstances and negative things

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that occur in our life when we go out into the world and experience things

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new things because everything's always new we're going to focus on that negativity

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because it's what our mind is most readily aimed towards

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and you know chasing your desires dreams and aspirations isn't

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so much about hitting your target it's about making sure you're aiming correctly

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and this aiming is our awareness this aiming is our perspective this aiming is the thoughts that we have about ourselves

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You know, you want you want to be able to to do these certain things to have this certain impact.

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But until you give yourself the perspective of yourself enough to be able to do those things, then they won't be done.

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And the illusion of doubt is basically us thinking that there are things that we we can't do,

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but we can recognize that they are possible in our head.

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we think oh well i could do that but this is

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that and others in the way or i could do that

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but i might fail a lot of people fail

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when they go out and do that

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and it keeps us stuck it keeps us in the same idea same mentalities the same things

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that keep us constantly perpetuating the same loops over and over again

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and i think it's important

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that we sort of break free from those loops enough to recognize

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that there are no binding principles but our own thoughts about ourselves

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what hinders us but our own reference constant reference to the past what binds us

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if not our inability to acknowledge that if it's humanly possible you too can do it

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there are so many stories and a lot of us love stories of information inspiration sorry

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and i think that's why a lot of us enjoy self -help enjoy things

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that make us feel like things are possible

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because a part of us already acknowledges the truth of

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that a part of us already acknowledges

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that a lot of things are within the realm of possibility

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but a lot of us don't acknowledge

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that it's actually possible individually for us in a present way

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and and i think part of that is

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because we sort of been trained to imagine our whole life at once

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and we've been told to fragment time when it comes to ourselves

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and our identity so it feels like

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if i'm talking about myself from a year now a year from now i'm talking about a different person

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or if i'm talking about myself a year ago i'm talking about a different person

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and i don't necessarily mean that to say that circumstances

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and things in terms of my perspective don't change but the awareness

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that i'm calling ian me is consistent it's constant

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and you're ever changing change is always our constant principle

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and the fact

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that we keep dividing it by time makes everything seem like

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it has separate instantiations like oh next year these things might happen

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that changed me but we never actually acknowledge the fact

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that change is always a present thing it's always our present

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contributions to ourselves via our own thought like my own greatest turning points in terms of my perspective

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and my outlook on life

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and my overall view of myself have never been me thinking

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about the past it's always been me thinking about where i currently am

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and where i want to be

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and i think the greatest shifts for me have always happened

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when i recognize that the future doesn't exist anywhere but in here

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and if i want a certain future to exist it's not about thinking about it solely it's about recognizing

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that the future starts today it's about recognizing

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that you're constantly building constantly investing constantly tending to the garden that is you

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if i want to be a certain way in the future

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i start now i start where i am i start where my feet are

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because that's the only way to do it

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and to go back to the idea

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that we're trying to imagine our whole life at once i really think

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that is the the main thing that sort of brings us suffering is

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because we think that our happiness is some distant thing we think

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that our our love for ourselves is some distant thing waiting to be waiting to be released

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when it's us waiting on ourselves to release it presently we're

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waiting on certain people to tell ourselves they tell us they they love us

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so much so we actually start to feel content in who we are

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and i don't think a lot of us recognize how backwards that that truly is

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you know if it is to be given by someone else is theirs to give and not ours to have

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and the one thing that anyone can be sure

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that they do have is themselves

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because as long as you have yourself you have someone

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and it's true you always are with yourself a hundred percent of the time there's no thing

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that you experience that you don't experience

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because all you're experiencing as yourself you know

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and we have to be the ones to sort of bridge the gap between what

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has been and what we want but it's always about our present intention

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and i was thinking about this in a more like grand

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societal sense like i like to delve into like how the past impacts the present in terms of everything

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and if we in the past we're thinking constantly i'm not smart or i'm not

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i'm not good looking i'm not confident about this i'm not that

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and we work from a standpoint of i'm trying to overcome these things

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we're holding on to them and i don't mean that to say

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that it's easy to let them go i'm not i'm not saying this to say

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that um that that holding on is not something that makes sense

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because we all do it

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and it's a product of what we've been fed a product of the ideas

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that we've been shared and in holding on to these negative things and thinking that we have to start from them

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we condition ourselves to constantly fighting our own ideas that we're living in

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what is your own lack of confidence but an idea that you have

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what is your own lack of love for yourself but an idea

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that you constantly perpetuate an idea that you have and having is always a present thing wanting and holding on to

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those are things

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that i think establish a separation between what we want i'm holding on to my confidence implying

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that if i were to let go of it it would not be with me

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and it's never about what we hold on to it's always about what we have

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because we have to let ourselves go

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that's the only way we truly emerge that's the only way

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we actually learn how to bloom into who we have yet

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to become by letting go of who we were previously

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and i don't mean that to say not using the past to build a better present

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but recognizing if if i keep kept feeding myself in the past the idea

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that i'm not confident or the idea that i don't love myself the idea that

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nobody like you know all of these things then it's about time

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that i feed myself something different and the only time

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that we ever can consume is presently so why not presently consume things

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that are better why not start establishing ideas within ourselves like

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i am confident i do love myself i love myself i am i

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and i am happy you know and recognizing that these feelings

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are not tied to specific events inherently confidence is not you

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going to this specific event acting this specific way it's a feeling it's a feeling within yourself

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that we decided it to label what is love love doesn't mean

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that that someone comes up to you

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and says they love you love doesn't mean

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that uh i don't know that's a good example i'm just gonna keep going with

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that love is everything that you call love everything that grants you

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that feeling of love but that doesn't have to be tied to a specific granting

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or more so it doesn't have to be always external

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you can love yourself for all you love you can look outside

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and say you know i truly do love nature i love being able to look at this

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and you're feeling that love and if we are what we experience

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and we're experiencing love for outside things things

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that we're experiencing then we're also loving part of ourselves we're also loving a part of us

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and that's the biggest illusion the illusion of separation the illusion that

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when i am feeling love or happiness for the things outside of me that i'm not sharing in that

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and i think a lot of us close ourselves off to the ability to experience happiness

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and love for things outside of us because we feel like it's something

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that we must possess but

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if we're having it for something we already possess it it's

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already there sometimes it just takes us shifting our perspective of it enough to recognize

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that we already do and inherently love ourselves

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if you want to talk about what what love means it is a feeling of of deservingness

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or at least something akin to that but i'm just saying that to say when we're experiencing sadness anger

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all of these negative emotions are they not in reference to

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what we think we deserve for ourselves are they not in

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reference to how we want things to go for us because we know that we deserve

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a certain amount of things and i don't mean that to say

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that we need these things in order to be that way.

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But to say we've been convinced that things need to be that way in order for us to feel a way.

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What if it was the other way around?

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And this is a thought experiment that I've been working with for quite a while.

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And to be 100 % honest, it's one of the main things that I believe in personally.

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Because I've recognized how it's changed my entire life.

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How it's changed everything about the way I've experienced life.

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It's recognizing that feelings breed thoughts.

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thoughts don't breed feelings feelings breed thoughts

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because our thoughts i've come to believe are things

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that we're tuning into are things that we're we're sort of matching the frequency of

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when you're very happy you tend to think very happy thoughts you know

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and it's not like you can be sad and intentionally think very happy thoughts and it's automatically going to change something.

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But if you're very happy, you randomly think a sad thought, there's a good chance that you might just say, oh, no, it's not the time for that.

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I'm going to continue being happy, especially if we recognize that we aren't just our thoughts.

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And I think a lot of us have been constantly dictated by the things that we think most readily.

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And we haven't recognized in that that a lot of our thoughts have been implanted for us.

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A lot of the things that we've been fed are not necessarily things

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that we've given to ourselves or things that we've intentionally given to ourselves

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but i think once we come of conscious age once we're aware enough to actually make a choice it's important

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that we do because it actually breeds so much for us

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if we want to talk about like manifestation and bringing things into your life is it not us matching our feelings

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is it not us feeling in proportion to the things

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that we want that brings them here not us just thinking

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but feeling feeling has always been the answer

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and i've read a plethora of self -help books a plethora of philosophy a plethora of just books in general

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and feeling is always the driving motive

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and i think some of the reasons why we perpetuate

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so much negativity why we why we sometimes act underhanded why we do things

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that don't necessarily contribute to us as a whole is

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because we think that feeling is generated by external things we think

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that we need specific things and we've been told the specific things that bring us a certain feeling

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so we want those things to feel that way but

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if we were to taught or if we can recognize

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that we can feel in proportion to us just being like i can say

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that i'm genuinely happy just being myself And of course, it might be supported by me being able to, I don't know, live, me being able to have shelter,

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food, water, stable this, stable that.

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That might be true.

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But that does not mean that if I was to not have those things, that I couldn't be happy.

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I think we've sort of made happiness a single story of how things should look for us.

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and i think the happiest people aren't the people

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that have a lot but are are content with what they have

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but that are desirous of having more

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because having more is not having more of yourself it's just having more possessions it's not about what you possess

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but how much of yourself is within your possession

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that truly allows you to be abundant in a real way

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i think abundance has always been a mentality same thing goes

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with wealth same thing goes with happiness same things goes goes with prosperity it's never been a physical thing

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because we're not talking about physical things we're talking about feelings we're talking about vibrational states of a person's

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consciousness a person's awareness we're not talking about physical things

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that we never have Even if we talk about negative things like greed

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Greed is not in possessions Greed is in the person who desires a lot of possessions, a surplus

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And all we're doing is constantly combating or going with our feelings

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And the illusion of doubt To tie it back to the

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start of this Is us tying ourselves to the idea

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that we can't succeed or us tying ourselves to the idea

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that whatever we're going into isn't gonna work in our favor

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and I think that's one of the worst things we can ever do for ourselves

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because in tying our mind to death all we're going to

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be looking for within those situations is how we can go

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wrong all we're going to be looking for is the ways in which it is going wrong

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but sometimes that wrongness that we're perceiving is more so a projection of us

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like if i was giving a presentation and someone wasn't paying attention

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and i was already feeling doubtful i was already like oh

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i'm not gonna do good like no one's gonna pay attention no one's gonna care about what i'm saying

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and i start doing a presentation

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and somebody's not paying attention somebody's on their phone somebody walks out my initial assumption

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or our initial assumption is that it has something to do with us

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but truthfully it has nothing to do with us

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it has everything to do with that person and the fact

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that we take personal a lot of what we experience in

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that way stops us from living life intimately because what is the point

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if we if we just want to talk about thoughts

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if we just want to talk about our experience what is the point

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Of us jeopardizing our own happiness in reference to what we think someone else's thinks

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In reference to things that we don't know

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Because there are not a lot of things that we know if we're being honest, we don't know anything

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We don't know a thing we think things and

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if it's always governed by what we think and we can recognize

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that we can think anything we want via our imagination then

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we're depriving ourselves of our own experience by not imagining things

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in our favor by not opening up doors for ourselves by

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not identifying ourselves with our imagination instead of the past

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when we identify ourselves with our imagination we bridge the gap

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if i was to imagine myself identify with the imagination of myself being confident loving myself in happiness

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and identify with that and when I say identify with that, I mean presently.

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Like, oh, I am this way.

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What needs to be done in order for me to be that way?

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Nothing.

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You've already bridged the gap.

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And it's just about us being able to accept the gaps that we bridge.

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And I think that's what presence and intention and practice comes in.

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I think that's the aspect of our self -help that needs to be most

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absorbed is us learning how to trust ourselves and of course that means us sometimes

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recognizing the ways in which we've deprived ourselves of a trusting foundation whether

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that be because we don't act in proportion to the things

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that we think like even myself are certain things

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that i'm like okay i'm gonna do and i don't hold up my end of the bargain sometimes

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and some of us when that when

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that sort of thing happens we'll tell ourselves or

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or subtly tell ourselves or subconsciously that we can't trust ourselves

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that we don't believe the things that we actually tell ourselves

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that we don't that we aren't able to act upon our actual intention

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and of course it might be hard at first

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but i think it's always more important to start than to

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not do anything in starting small i'm gonna wake up tomorrow

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and i'm gonna do this and doing that

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and that's that's that's truly enough because it never needed to be a hundred things

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that's an illusion in and of itself it never needed to be so much

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because the thing that you're you're attempting to change is all mental

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it's all mental it's all within you you know they say

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if you don't go within you go without because the things

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that we're looking for aren't outside of us they're always within us You know, the feeling of abundance, the feeling of wealth, the feeling of happiness, the feeling of love.

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All things that we have within.

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And sometimes we have certain barriers that we either have placed due to our circumstances growing up.

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Or maybe we place them ourselves in certain experiences and referencing things to ourselves.

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Regardless of which

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We are always the catalyst to our own change in awareness

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Our own shifts in our ideas Our own shifts in narrative And

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If we're not taking part in the lives we live enough

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to write our own story Then we're going to think

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that it's being written by somebody else And I don't mean

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that in a religious sense I don't mean

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that to say God doesn't know what's going on

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if you believe in God i don't mean

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that to say any anything like that but to recognize

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that you can't be behind on your own story you can't it's your story you're constantly writing it

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and where you are is always where you're supposed to be

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because there is no would or should have only things

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that are done only things that have happened and

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if we constantly work from ideas of this should have been this way

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that should have been this way i would have done this i should have done this

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then we lose our ability to sort of act in the present

459

In ways that will bring us towards where we want to go.

460

It's always about our present intention.

461

And the second we start granting ourselves feelings of happiness in proportion to things we have yet to have, is the second we begin to truly have them.

462

The second we allow our happiness to be separate from the physical things we want, is the second we actually have it.

463

Because to have happiness dependent on an external thing that's temporary, that won't be with you forever, is to recognize that it's not something you have but something you're holding on to

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and i don't mean that to say we can't love our possessions i don't mean

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that to say we can't love the people in our vicinity i don't mean

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that to say we can't love the things around us

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i think we should but i think we shouldn't allow

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that gratitude to live in reference to to other gratitude i can love everything

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that i talked to i think i talked about this in

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my last video i can love everything i have in this room right now doesn't mean i'll have it forever

471

and And it doesn't mean when it's gone that I won't love it still.

472

But I will love it for the space it occupied, not for the space it no longer takes up.

473

And I think a lot of us love it for the space it no longer takes up.

474

And instead of allowing ourselves to fill in the vacancies of whether

475

that be our awareness or physical things or people or places, we allow ourselves to live in constant reference

476

and a constant feeling of lack for things

477

that we no longer truly hold on to things

478

that we can't hold on to anymore

479

and i think the same thing works with ourselves sometimes we reference previous versions of ourselves like oh

480

so much happier then oh it was this then i had

481

this going for me i had this going for me then

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i mean could be true you might have you might have

483

held on to those things you might have been in possession of those things at some point

484

but you don't have them now

485

and i think the second we actually begin to accept that

486

and recognize that you're always enough for yourself where you are is the second we actually grant ourselves an opportunity

487

to fill in those vacancies you didn't need those things to be you you appreciated those things

488

while they were there you might have loved them like they

489

were part of you you might have let them go like they were part of you regardless of

490

which they're no longer here and i don't mean

491

that to say draft i mean

492

that in the most positive way you can love things for

493

the space they longer take up you know there are friends i haven't seen in years

494

and i still love them for what they've given me i'm not saying i don't i don't miss them

495

but missing is a form of

496

that love too not loving them for the space to longer take up

497

but appreciating what they've done but having gratitude for what it was

498

and in letting that letting that be so i can be in the present

499

so i can be where i am i recognize more than anything

500

that the main thing that we ever are trapped in is our own thoughts we can recognize

501

when we want to work

502

and we want to do things we want to be productive

503

we want to work towards our desires sometimes we just sit

504

there stuck in thoughts stuck in a rehearsal of the past stuck in a rehearsal of things

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that that have already passed us and we lose ourselves in

506

that we lose ourselves not because um not

507

because we're looking for ourselves oh well actually i'll say

508

that we're losing ourselves because we're looking for ourselves everywhere

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but where we are because we've somewhat convinced ourselves that

510

that who we are was dependent on circumstance

511

that who we are was dependent on this is that

512

and other and i think part of that reason is

513

because we haven't established presently or made a decision for ourselves on who we are

514

because we think that it has to be formulated by things outside of us

515

you could wake up tomorrow and decide to be the meanest person ever and you can tie it to nothing

516

you could do it just because you desire it just because you want to see if you can and you can

517

because who we are in a lot of ways is nothing and infinite at the same time

518

we have the ability to express ourselves in a million different

519

ways there's always a million ways to the top of the mountain

520

and it's just about choosing the path that accommodates you best

521

and when i say accommodates you best i don't mean just easy or chosen for you

522

but making your own decisions that allow your path to be easiest

523

and what that means to me personally is whenever i have to do things

524

that are tedious whenever i have to do things that um

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i don't know even like making the decision to be confident

526

about the things i want to be hopeful about the things

527

i want that's what makes the path easier is by not giving into the idea of doubt.

528

Because it's an idea.

529

It's a thought.

530

it is not real it's not tangible and we can think anything

531

and i think a lot of us believe certain thoughts

532

that we have that are negative just because we've told ourselves over

533

and over again

534

and we have to do a good job at doing the opposite at telling ourselves the things

535

that we actually need to hear and from a present standpoint

536

and that doesn't mean not acting in accordance acting in accordance is it's sort of the cherry on top like

537

if i tell myself

538

i am i don't know i'm moving into more happy period of my life

539

and i keep doing the things that i was doing when i was in a sad period

540

my mind might attach itself to those actions and perpetuate the same feeling that i had

541

and that's because a lot of who we are ends up being rooted in past idea

542

a lot of it ends up being rooted in previous experiences

543

and we allow a lot of things to be dampened by

544

familiarity we don't allow newness to be bred in every moment

545

and i think that's where we get stuck sometimes too it's not recognizing

546

that we are new with every moment

547

that we experience everything is always new you've never experienced this

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moment right now right now as you're watching this you've never experienced this before

549

and there was never a specific way you had to experience it work with me right now

550

if you can imagine imagine what happiness feels like imagine being happy just

551

because you watched this or happy just because you're sitting there happy

552

because you're giving yourself an opportunity to be where you are happy

553

because you're being aware of where you are it's possible

554

and it's not tied to anything but you being where you are

555

and i think that's what a lot of people are trying to get at in their self -help

556

in in these ideas is recognizing

557

that we sort of have to get rid of this idea

558

that who we are is strictly dependent on our thoughts

559

or at least the thoughts

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that we have in words at least the limitations we place on ourselves with the words that we use

561

you can be happy not thinking anything i think sometimes we're happiest not thinking anything

562

because some a lot of the thoughts that we replicate are in reference to the past

563

and until we start instantiating with present intention new thoughts

564

that are positive then they won't really be there they won't really be there for us you know

565

and in this entire journey that i've had with my my self -love

566

and personal discovery and whatnot you know there it always feels like there's more i don't know

567

but i always find more contentment the more i allow myself to be present in general

568

and i think a lot of us in general are just dysregulated

569

when it comes to our nervous systems

570

when it comes to our our mentals we allow ourselves to to fully live in our minds

571

and that's why we don't feel like we ever set foot in the world um

572

because the world is something you're already a part of there is no separation from it you feel me

573

and i don't know i feel like i'm getting along with it

574

but i'm about to wrap it up uh all that really to say

575

your doubt doesn't exist anywhere but in your head

576

And your doubt is just as prominent or just as instilled with your confidence as your idea that you can't do something.

577

Like, you're confident that you can't.

578

And it's just about shifting where you place that energy.

579

Shifting where you place that intention.

580

Because your energy flows where your attention goes.

581

and if we're constantly giving attention to the parts of ourselves that we're trying to run from

582

then we've already lost because what we run from has already caught us it's about recognizing

583

that we're not currently captured it's about expressing to yourself

584

that you're not currently captured and deciding what you want to be within your vicinity at least mentally

585

your circumstances might look bleak in certain ways yes

586

that might be true but if there's a perspective

587

that allows you to live it better then you owe it

588

to yourself via your own self -love to give yourself

589

that opportunity and via that opportunity and via those shifts in awareness

590

you're going to bring those things into your life

591

because you're going to start to see positivity wherever you are even if it's in the dirtiest form

592

And you're going to start bringing that stuff in because that's, at least in my experience, how things have actually gone.

593

The happier I feel on a regular basis, the more good things typically happen to me.

594

I call it synchronicity.

595

A lot of people call it synchronicity, manifestation.

596

All of these things are basically saying that we're constantly experiencing and bringing into our life what we are.

597

because we are what we experience if you made it this far you feel me thank you so much

598

keep you all keep being great man make sure you're taking

599

care of yourself do what you can what you have um absolutely um might stream soon something like

600

that books still available check those out i started writing something

601

new you feel me i started writing something new y 'all

602

got something in the works it's nothing like what y 'all seen before something new um

603

but like i said keep being y 'all keep being great

604

make sure you're taking care of yourself doing what you can

605

what you have a lot in the way a lot already here um and without

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Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

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57 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 605 sentences and 7593 words to shadow. The speech runs for 46:15. The speaker talks at a natural 164 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% 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
happiness noun	/ˈhæpinɪs/	The emotion of being happy; joy; elation.
illusion noun	/ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/	A distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.
intention noun	/ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/	A course of action that a person intends to follow.
awareness noun	/əˈwɛɹ.nəs/	The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer.
possession noun	/pəˈzɛʃn̩/	A control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
readily adverb	/ˈɹɛdɪli/	Without unwillingness or hesitation; showing readiness.
acknowledge verb	/əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/	To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in.
breed verb	/ˈbɹiːd/	To give birth to; to be the native place of.
presently adverb	/ˈpɹɛzəntli/	Before long; soon.
necessarily adverb	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	Inevitably; of necessity.
dependent adjective	/dɪˈpɛndənt/	Relying upon; depending upon.
imagination noun	/ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/	The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images.
proportion noun	/pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/	A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.
regardless adverb	/ɹɪˈɡɑɹd.lɪs/	Without attention to warnings or indications of bad consequences.
invest verb	/ɪnˈvɛst/	To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
take up verb		To pick up.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
check off verb		To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example…
come up to verb		To approach.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.

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	i've been trying · I've been working
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've accepted · you've opened · have fed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be played · are given · were inclined
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who fail · people who prosper · person who desires

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 291 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, separation /ˌsɛp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, validity /vəˈlɪd.ɪ.ti/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/

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 happiness, illusion, intention.

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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