Shadowing Practice: The MOST Powerful Brain Rewire Trick to Break Free from Feeling STUCK - Learn English Speaking with Video
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You know that feeling where you feel like you're going to get absolutely nowhere in life.
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You're stuck in a cycle of looking at your phone and constantly feeling behind, but nothing you do is getting you out of that flop era.
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That was me three years ago and it was awful.
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The truth is the same wiring in our brain
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that keeps us stuck has the ability to change our lives forever and it has nothing to do with manifestations, matcha or morning routines.
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This is about understanding exactly how your brain works so you can use it to your advantage, hijack it and completely change your life forever.
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Stick with me because in the next few minutes, I'll show you exactly how to bend your brain in your favour, one tiny tweak at a time.
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If you're new here, then hello, my name is Faye.
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I'm a medical doctor working in London.
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And the aim of this channel is to share science-backed solutions to the biggest problems I've faced in my life.
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And I have a feeling you're experiencing as well.
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So if that sounds like something you would be interested in, then hit the subscribe button so you never miss a video.
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So why does neuroplasticity matter so much?
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Your brain is not hardwired.
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It is the ultimate editing app because every single day it is quietly deleting unused lines of code.
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And without you asking, it highlights and bolds the lines that you keep coming back to.
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Neuroscientists call that ongoing update neuroplasticity.
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And it is the reason that my dad is on a 300 day Duolingo streak for Spanish well into his 50s.
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But there's a big issue.
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The same flexibility in our brain can hurt you as quickly as it can help you.
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In 2002, researchers followed people who only watched footage of 9-11.
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They had no personal connection.
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Just from watching the footage, they experienced symptoms of PTSD.
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Their brains had saved the tragedy on its desktop and was continually reopening the file despite not experiencing it firsthand.
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Next time you find yourself in a flop era telling yourself that you'll never be good enough, this might explain it.
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Evolution has meant that our brains have a negativity bias.
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It means bad thoughts stick to it like Velcro.
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Imaging studies of the brain show that negative images light up our threat circuits harder
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and linger longer in our memory than positive ones.
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This was great when we were trying to run away from lions, but not so great when we're having a late night doom scroll comparing ourselves to everyone else.
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The good news is that plastic means malleable.
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Just look at London taxi drivers.
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For them to pass their knowledge test, they have to memorise 25,000 roads and MRIs actually revealed
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that their posterior hippocampus was actually bigger than average people
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and the more years that they had been in the job the bigger their hippocampus got
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which means even if it feels impossible now it is completely possible for you to change your brain, silence your imposter syndrome and forget about the boy who made you feel small.
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I need you to do one thing for me think of your brain like a garden good thoughts are flowers
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and bad ones are weeds.
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If you do not learn about the tools in this video, then the weeds will take over your garden.
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And in the next section, we'll talk about yanking out those weeds that you've been watering without even realising.
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So stick with me.
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So picture this.
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You've popped on your kettle for a quick two minute boil
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and your immediate reaction is to open Instagram just for one second.
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And 11 doom scroll minutes later, you've forgotten why you're in the kitchen in the first place.
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Even worse, that tiny voice in your head telling you you're not good enough now sounds like it's being played out of a megaphone.
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But what's really happening in your brain?
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Neuroscientists have this concept called Hebbian Learning, which is neurons that fire together, wire together.
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It's the way our brain not only links information together, but also makes those links stronger.
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So every time you replay a self-doubting thought in your head, it is like watering the weeds in your garden, helping them to grow.
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So how can we kill those weeds?
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I need you to do a trigger audit
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because something is happening to trigger the thoughts in your head where you're telling yourself you're not good enough.
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And a great place to start would be opening your most used social media app.
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Have a quick scroll and note down any account or post or trend or ad that spikes this self-criticism.
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Unfollow, mute or filter them right away.
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And you've just yanked three weeds.
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Now to water the flowers instead.
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Every time a negative thought pops into your head, I need you to make note of a positive or neutral observation to counteract it.
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Say it out loud or jot it down in your notes app.
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For example, say a friend on social media just got engaged
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and maybe it makes you feel a little bit behind on life.
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A positive statement to counteract it might be, thank god, I don't have to pay for a wedding and I can pay for a holiday instead.
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This changes your perspective and swaps the weeds for flowers because just like a garden, your brain only has so much room.
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So the weeds are gone, but to make our flowers grow big and strong, we're going to need some fertiliser.
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You may be familiar with that midweek haze where every day just feels copy and pasted.
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Same commute, same meal prepped lunch, same feeling of exhaustion the moment you get home from work and collapse on the sofa.
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And suddenly your brain's on autopilot before you can even say algorithm.
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That feeling of Groundhog Day isn't just boredom, it's your brain crying out for a challenge because by not challenging it,
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you could actually be doing real damage.
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Neuroplasticity thrives on two fertilizers, novelty and difficulty.
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So when you grow up, you become an adult.
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Life becomes more routine.
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Your brain starts to slow, but all hope is not lost.
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A 2009 study by Oxford University showed
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that adults who learned to juggle for six weeks had positive changes on their brain imaging.
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But the best bit is that it didn't matter whether they actually got good at juggling.
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It just mattered that they tried.
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Recently to challenge my brain and to heal from being a child who was awful at art in school.
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I started the Skillshare class, learn to draw a comprehensive introduction to drawing foundations and style.
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This class teaches fundamental drawing skills using fun and beautiful activities.
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If, like me, your brain is in need of a challenge and you want to learn a new skill, then there are a couple reasons why I am obsessed with Skillshare.
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Number one, world-class creatives teach the stuff they do.
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Illustrators, designers, successful entrepreneurs.
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Secondly, you learn by making.
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Classes have mini projects, so neuroplasticity gets its novelty and difficulty in one session.
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And finally, the platform is built for busy members.
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Watch on your desktop at lunch or your mobile during your commute, whatever works for you.
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The first 500 people to use my link in the description
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or scan the QR code will receive 20% off their first year of Skillshare.
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Get started today.
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If you try a class, please let me know in the comments because I'm always looking for new Skillshare classes to try to keep my brain challenged.
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So now your soil is nutrient rich in the form of challenge and novelty,
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but what happens when the seasons change and weather messes up your garden?
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That's right, it is time to talk about how your menstrual cycle can keep your brain stuck in this flop era.
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Do you ever notice how some days your focus can feel razor sharp
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and then foggy the next day with no clear reason?
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The cause could be your monthly hormones.
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You see, estrogen and progesterone aren't just baby making hormones.
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They're like the weather within your brain garden.
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Estrogen in particular turns up the network flexibility, which helps connections within the brain relink and spark new ideas.
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But when estrogen dips, you can feel a little bit more sluggish.
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A study looking at MRIs of women at different phases of their cycle found that when oestrogen peaked around ovulation,
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there was the most amount of brain activity and different type of activity.
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So how can you take advantage of your cycle and neuroplasticity together to get yourself out of your flop era?
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Firstly, if you are not tracking your cycle yet, then what are you doing?
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I've been tracking my cycle for the last three
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and it's completely changed my life and the amount of grace that I give myself during different times of the month.
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So I don't end up beating myself up when my hormones quite literally seem like they're fighting against me.
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Next, you need to understand what each of your phases mean.
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So a quick whistle stop at all.
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Your menstrual phase is when you are having your period.
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Basically, progesterone and estrogen are low.
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Then as you come out of your period you enter your
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follicular phase where oestrogen begins to rise with oestrogen peaking around the time of ovulation
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so this is when an egg is released.
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This is the time where your brain might feel better, your mood might feel better so it's the perfect time to start something new,
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get yourself out of a flop era, be productive.
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After ovulation oestrogen starts to decrease and progesterone is increasing.
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This is known as the luteal phase and you may feel a little bit more sluggish, a little bit more emotional and that is okay.
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It can be a good time to be a little bit more relaxed,
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less hard on yourself but quietly grind away and keep going as much as it feels right for you.
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I think the main issue I had when I was stuck in these self-deprecating cycles, telling myself that I wasn't good enough,
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relinking those negative links in my brain, I wouldn't have an awareness of my cycle.
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I'd make progress in my follicular phase, feel really great about it
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and then some of my habits would slip in my Lucille phase
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which would lead me to have these bad thoughts about myself
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which would relink these connections in my brain keeping my brain garden full of weeds
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that just overtook all the flowers that I'd grown in my follicular phase.
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Just with the simplest of awareness I am able to give myself forgiveness
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and not allow those weeds to infiltrate all the progress that I made the week before.
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Nutrition is also really important when it comes to minimising those premenstrual symptoms that can impact your brain function and mood.
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Make sure you're getting your omega-3s from oily fish, flax seeds, walnuts or supplements.
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Magnesium-rich foods like dark chocolate can smooth that luteal phase irritability.
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Just make sure you're including a wide variety of nourishing plant foods to your diet, including berries and leafy greens.
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But modern life has gifted us something else that is terrorising your garden.
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Brain rot.
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One buzz from Instagram, two from WhatsApp and a breaking news alert popping up on your phone.
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Forget about planting any flowers in your garden.
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Your brain does not have capacity to process all this information all the time at once.
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Digital overload is rewiring your brain for shallow thinking.
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Think of internet brain rot like plants that can't really survive more than a couple days.
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They aren't bad as such, like weeds.
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They're just boring.
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Rapid task switching floods your brain with dopamine, teaching it to crave novelty instead of debt.
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The result is you can read five headlines but struggle to finish a chapter of a book.
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If you cannot watch Netflix without scrolling on your phone at the same time, then this one's gonna hurt.
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Brain MRIs have shown that heavy media multitaskers have structural differences in their brain and worse cognitive control.
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So here is your focus training toolkit to grow plants in your garden that are worth planting.
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Download Forest.
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I've been talking about Forest for as long as I have had this channel.
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It is the only way I can script and research videos, but not only that, it's the only way I can get enjoyment from it.
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Forest is an app that stops you from going on your phone.
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If you go on your phone, a little tree dies and it enables me to get into flow state
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which is this mystical place where time just seems to not exist because you are so immersed in a task.
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Digital overload hasn't just taken our focus, it's taken our ability to get passionate and stick our teeth into a project
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that we care about and you're rebuilding your focus endurance by removing these short gratification dopamine hits.
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I need I need you to switch your commuter scroll to something more meaningful
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because I know it just seems like time to kill.
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But the issue is if you're starting your day with a scroll on your phone for the rest of the day, you're just going to be craving another scroll.
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Recently, I've been alternating between listening to a headspace or listening to an audiobook instead.
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And next, I need you to invest in two notebooks.
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One you're going to keep by the sofa, the other one you're going to keep by your bed.
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I don't charge my phone by my bed.
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It is the single habit in my life that has made the biggest impact bar absolutely none.
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I didn't set out to make that a habit.
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But the moment that it became a habit, I realized how much of a negative impact it had been having on my life to have my phone by my bed.
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But if you are someone who keeps their phone by their bed
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and lies in bed and gets bored and then reaches for their phone and then can't sleep, have a notebook by your bed.
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And when you get bored or your mind is filled with thoughts, reach for the notebook instead.
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Put the thoughts and the ideas somewhere meaningful, but don't pick your digital dopamine machine that is just going to keep you craving more and more.
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But what if the problem isn't your phone, it's you.
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You speak up in work and stumble on your words and then the entire journey home you're telling yourself, I don't belong here, everyone thinks I'm stupid,
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I don't deserve my job.
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Say hello to imposter syndrome, the biggest culprit preventing you from reaping the benefits of neuroplasticity.
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Feeling like an imposter keeps you stuck in this fixed mindset loop where you believe
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that who you are is set in stone and cannot be changed.
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One study looking at brain imaging found that those who had a growth mindset, which is a belief that you can change and you are capable,
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made stronger connections in their brain.
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So here are three easy changes for your anti-fraud toolkit.
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Firstly, I'm gonna sound like that viral interview of Meghan Markle going around at the moment, but add yet.
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Sometimes it is an imposter syndrome.
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Sometimes we are just bad at something.
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We all have weaknesses.
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Where the issue arises is when we think that those weaknesses limit our capability in the future.
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But just by adding yet to a statement, you shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
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For example, I'm not very good at making matcha yet.
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That was me about six months ago and today I made the fluffiest, creamiest matcha of my life and I was very proud of myself
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because six months ago I definitely did not believe that I was capable of that.
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Next, I need you to have a success bank on the Notes app on your phone.
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I know you've got a note on your phone dedicated to all the people that you've got with.
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Now it's time to make a note on your phone detailing all your successes.
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Big wins to small wins.
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We do not discriminate because positive recall waters those flowers in your garden.
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Finally, share your story because you will find that imposter syndrome is so common.
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By being open and telling other people about these negative thoughts in your head, you are sending a signal to your brain that you aren't ashamed and it isn't a threat.
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Plus, in sharing these thoughts, you realize that so many of us have exactly the same weeds growing in our garden.
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But there is another unexpected savoteur stopping you from rewiring your brain.
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Chronic stress.
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Stress is like the water for our flowers in the garden.
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It's good for them at the right amount.
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Cortisol, which is the body's stress hormone, sends a signal to our body to wake us up to respond to short-term challenges.
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It's like our alarm in the morning that wakes us up and tells us to get out the door.
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But when stress never turns off because work is chaos, Your personal life is a shambles and you never have a moment to breathe.
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This is like leaving the garden hose on all night, drowning the roots of your flowers.
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Chronic stress is very, very bad for neuroplasticity.
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I've researched and filmed a full video about how to regulate your nervous system that I believe went up last week, which I will link.
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But if I haven't posted it yet, then make sure to hit the subscribe button so you do not miss it when it does come out.
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You may be wondering why I have not mentioned three of the most important factors
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when it comes to boosting your brain function, diet, sleep and exercise.
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So you can find out my essential nighttime habits for good sleep by clicking this video just here
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or the video below about how to actually start a healthy lifestyle in 2025.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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If you did enjoy the video, please don't forget to like, comment, subscribe.
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I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful week and I will see you in the next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 215 sentences and 3082 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:48. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- weed /wiːd/ (noun) — Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
- scroll /skɹoʊl/ (noun) — A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
- habit /ˈhæb.ɪt/ (noun) — An action performed on a regular basis.
- flop /flɑp/ (verb) — To fall heavily due to lack of energy.
- syndrome /ˈsɪndɹoʊm/ (noun) — A recognizable pattern of signs, symptoms and/or behaviours, especially of a disease or medical or psychological condition.
- mindset /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ (noun) — A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one.
- hormone /ˈhoɹmoʊn/ (noun) — Any substance produced by one tissue and conveyed by the bloodstream to another to effect physiological activity.
- novelty /ˈnɑvəlti/ (noun) — The state of being new or novel; newness.
- subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/ (verb) — To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).
- bore /boɹ/ (verb) — To inspire boredom in somebody.
- awful /ˈɔːfʊl/ (adjective) — Very bad.
- awareness /əˈwɛɹ.nəs/ (noun) — The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer.
- mood /muːd/ (noun) — A mental or emotional state, composure.
- wire /ˈwaɪɚ/ (noun) — Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die.
- difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/ (noun) — The state of being difficult, or hard to do.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- go on /ˈɡoʊˌɒn/ (verb) — To continue in extent.
- stick with (verb) — To remain close to.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- bank on (verb) — To rely on someone or something; to count on something; to depend on something.
- come out /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ (verb) — To be discovered; to be revealed.
- do with (verb) — Only used in to do with
- end up (verb) — To bring to a conclusion.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 65 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: smooth /smuːð/, breathe /bɹiːð/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sharp /ʃɑɹp/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, structural /ˈstɹʌk(t͡)ʃəɹəl/, observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/, nutrition /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, comprehensive /ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/
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 weed, scroll, habit.
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 | you've been watering · I've been tracking · I've been talking |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've faced · has meant · You've popped |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is not hardwired · being played · is not lost |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who only · Learning, which is · someone who keeps |
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.