Shadowing Practice: The shock of doing nothing | Andrew Holecek - Learn English Speaking with Video
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65 sentences
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We're addicted to distraction, we're light junkies.
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Just look at your life experience, look at the impulsivity.
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Every time you reach for your phone, like how many times a day does that happen?
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Your tablet, your email, look underneath it, what are you feeling?
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You're going to find a contraction.
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We feel this deficient sense of emptiness, we feel that something's missing.
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consumerism is born of this, right?
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I want this, I want that, I want, I want, I want.
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We're so pulled apart from who we are, we've lost touch.
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Who you think you are is defined by what you do.
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Who you really are is revealed when you finally stop doing.
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The very structure of the self is radically threatened when you step into the dark.
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Dark retreat, it's like a cold plunge.
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You're entering as close as one can get to a complete sensory deprivation chamber.
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The amazing thing about darkness is the shock comes from the shock of doing nothing.
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At first, it can be intensely boring.
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And that's the painful part.
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I can't do this, I can't distract, I can't move in the normal ways.
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About 90 % of people, when they hit the dark, they contract.
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Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response.
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But the more time you spend in there, what a surprise, the more you become familiar with the darkness.
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You relax, you slow down, you surrender.
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And then the mind starts to fall into itself.
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In the dark, mind becomes reality because there's nothing else.
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You first fall in.
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This is the dimension of the unconscious mind where I like to say all those spiders and snakes hang out.
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You receive all this undigested, unprocessed, unmetabolized psychic material.
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Reflections from childhood experiences.
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It's going to come up to be, in fact, digested and metabolized in the dark.
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You start to see in the most exquisite and actually painful ways.
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I am not this, I'm not that.
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You're basically opening the walls, expanding the walls of your perception box.
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But eventually, you're going to drop even below that.
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All the way down to the primordial contraction.
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The primordial contraction feels like me.
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It feels like the very sense of self, the very thing that I take as a given.
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That's the primordial contraction.
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And then why?
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You're going to open it.
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And that's where the gold takes place.
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You're forced to make this radical introduction to who you really are.
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So you enter this environment that brings about this kind of dissolution of self -structured identity.
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You have disappeared to become nothing.
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You drop even below that.
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Now you're below the surface structures of your storyline.
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We look up and we see nothing but blue sky.
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So you go into the dark, that allows the revelation of literally millions of stars, points of light that represent the unconscious mind.
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Really good news here is nothing really means everything.
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Empty of self means full of others.
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Everything dilates.
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It's not just your eyes that dilate.
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Your mind dilates, your heart dilates, your body dilates.
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Everything opens.
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This is what darkness brings about.
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This is the ultimate expansion of all your perception boxes.
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And as you come back up, you'll start to notice the walls of your perception box contract.
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They serve as defense mechanisms against the sensory assault of our conventional world.
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It's the most beautiful and revelatory thing.
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You realize, oh my gosh, I don't need a grasp, I don't need a contract.
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I could stay open.
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And so therefore, the invitation and revelation is, can I hold this level of openness?
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My sense faculties are open, my mind is open, my heart's open.
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How do I digest, metabolize, incorporate, make it stable?
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How do I transform this state into a trait?
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That's the journey.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The shock of doing nothing”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: dark, dilate, contraction, self, primordial. This video has 65 sentences and 630 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:08. The speaker talks at a steady 123 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| darkness noun | /ˈdɑɹk.nɪs/ | The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light. |
| perception noun | /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/ | The organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information. |
| shock noun | /ʃɔk/ | A sudden, heavy impact. |
| painful adjective | /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ | Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. |
| revelation noun | /ˌɹɛv.əˈleɪ.ʃən/ | The act of revealing or disclosing. |
| unconscious adjective | /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/ | Not awake; having no awareness (usually as the result of a head injury). |
| digest verb | /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst/ | To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application. |
| sensory adjective | /ˈsɛn.sə.ɹi/ | Of the physical senses or sensation. |
| stable noun | /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ | A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses. |
| chamber noun | /ˈt͡ʃeɪ̯mbɚ/ | The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble. |
| assault noun | /əˈsɔlt/ | A violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc. |
| reveal verb | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden. |
| expand verb | /ɪkˈspænd/ | To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open. |
| radical noun | /ˈɹædɪkəl/ | A root (of a number or quantity). |
| faculty noun | /ˈfæk.əl.ti/ | The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come up to verb | To approach. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- We're addicted to distraction, we're light junkies.
- Your tablet, your email, look underneath it, what are you feeling?
- You're going to find a contraction.
- How do I digest, metabolize, incorporate, make it stable?
- How do I transform this state into a trait?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is born · is defined · is revealed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've lost · have disappeared |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, can't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, shock /ʃɔk/, revelation /ˌɹɛv.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, unconscious /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/, conventional /kənˈvɛnʃənl̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: revelation /ˌɹɛv.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, dissolution /ˌdɪsəˈluʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like darkness, perception, shock.
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.