Shadowing Practice: to allow is to let go - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Boom!
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Yes.
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- Here we go.
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As you can see.
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I'm on the move still.
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And I don't plan on stopping.
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Um, what I want to talk about today.
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A lot of things low key.
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mainly about feeling.
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- sometimes i feel like we treat our emotions or our feelings
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or anything that we think about certain things that have an emotional charge to them as if
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they are you know, hostile invaders.
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We treat them as if they're not really a part of us, or they're not really reflective of anything that we are.
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And I don't mean that to say that we need to define ourselves solely based on our emotions.
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But to say, we have to accept them for what they are.
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I think that's the only way we liberate ourselves from them.
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like I used to have a bad habit of whenever I felt a certain way about something
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that I didn't think aligned with who I was or I didn't like that I felt that way.
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I just ignored it.
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Or I told myself I didn't feel that way or I tried to feel something else. And...
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in a lot of ways that
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fermented that that solidified that feeling that I was that I was trying to escape from but Recently, I've been trying to just...
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allow it.
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You know, not really allow it to paint my character, not really allow it to define my character.
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just Be there.
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And once I started to do that, I started recognizing that Not only are we not the thoughts that we have, but we're not just the feelings that we have either.
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I think it is about how you feel but you're the one feeling the feelings so
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In our sort of insistence that we need to feel a certain way to be ourselves, we're sort of holding ourselves in a box.
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and the second we actually allow ourselves to feel anything that we want is the second we actually
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get to do whatever we want.
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get to actually be in the moment.
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I think that a lot of us live our lives on the back burner of our emotions
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or the back burner of our own thoughts and ideas And until we...
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sort of get past ourselves or see past ourselves.
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We're stuck in the past and we don't really go anywhere.
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And I wrote about this a lot earlier, seeing past yourself.
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because I think you really do need to see passion.
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And I don't think it's a matter of Just our thoughts.
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I don't think it's a matter of just our feelings either.
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It's us recognizing that everything that we see in a real sense.
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is always reflective of what we carry.
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And until we start caring with a certain amount of intention, we're always going to feel like We've never been given the right things to hold on to.
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Um, at least in my own experience, I've recognized how much I've sort of desired a certain amount of change within myself
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and how much that desire for change is sort of being stunted.
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by my inability to see where I currently am.
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And until we acknowledge where we are, we can't really get anywhere.
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I think the importance is always in our acceptance.
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I think the second we truly accept something is the second it's truly let go.
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The second we can truly move on from it and change.
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you know, the second we accept our own flaws in insecurities, issues, etc. is the second we're actually able to approach them in a way that's not really defensive.
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I think that a lot of us play defense on our own character, myself included.
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Now, I don't really.
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desire to do that anymore.
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mainly because the character I'm trying to play defense for is not really the character that I want to have.
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Nor is it truth.
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You know, I think...
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A lot of us might tell ourselves fictitious things Um...
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and with a kind intention with a loving intention
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because we don't really want to hurt ourselves or we don't want to sometimes accept parts of ourselves that are ugly.
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But the ugliest thing we can do is shun them.
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You know, I think Sometimes it's us not facing those parts of us that make them ugly.
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Because it's us telling ourselves we can't look directly at whatever it is.
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And I think any type of strength of character, it doesn't come from having a character that's It doesn't come from having a character that you know,
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is unaffected by every single thing in the world.
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But at the very least a character that's willing to see past itself.
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You know, when we think about the things that we want in a real sense, I think we have to acknowledge that More than anything, it's not the item we want,
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but a self capable of getting that item.
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And until we sort of bridge the gap between ourselves, we won't really have an opportunity to get anything.
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You know, at least in my experience, that's what I'm recognizing or at least that's what I'm thinking currently.
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Like I don't really know exactly what's yet to come like I've mentioned this in videos before like there's
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so much on the horizon it feels like but there's also so much here.
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In a lot of ways this is the horizon that we're seeking because The moment is constantly being etched.
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The future is constantly being etched into You know, we're constantly creating a future.
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We're constantly etching into the present moment.
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and I guess until we give ourselves the liberty enough to actually sit with that and be with that and enjoy that.
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then we lose a lot.
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We don't lose a lot of effort.
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I don't mean that to say we're like
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doing ourselves a disservice because we can live our whole lives in our head
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and think that's The entire life we want to live
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We can live our whole lives thinking about our own flaws and insecurities, overcoming some or overcoming none, and we still live.
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You know, I think a lot of us, Oh!
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I don't even know.
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I think sometimes When it comes to change, we don't recognize that it's always an option.
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It's always a choice that we subtly make.
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And sometimes some choices are easier than others, and I like to think that.
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not because it sort of gives you a sense of liberty but because
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It helps you recognize how much of yourself has to do with you.
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You know, I think a lot of us like to posit that a lot of external factors contribute to our character, and I agree.
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I 100 % agree that so many external things contribute to our character.
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But not in the sense to say - Not too fast.
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that we have nothing to do with it.
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Because everything that we ingest, everything that we Consume.
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is always subject to the one consuming it.
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It's always subject to our own perspective, our own bias, our own etc. Like somebody you I don't even know.
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Just the fact that so many people can have so many different reactions to so many different things
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And I think many of us sometimes look around for how we're supposed to react, or at least I used to do this.
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"How am I supposed to react to this?
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"How am I supposed to react to that?" and never really listen to how we are actually reacting.
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We're not really giving ourselves a chance to find ourselves
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And I think no more of yourself can be lost in your inability to let it be found.
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And us not letting it be found is us not admitting to ourselves, at least at times, how we feel.
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and accepting it for what it is and that doesn't mean
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that you have to tell yourself oh I feel this way that means I have to
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Act this way do this or do that.
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But that doesn't mean it paints my character in this way.
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It doesn't mean that's who I am.
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It means I felt that way.
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Period.
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If we leave it there, we can leave it there.
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You know what I mean?
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But the second we hold on to it or the second we try to shun it away
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There's a second that it actually becomes part of our character
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If somebody calls me a certain name or says something to me and I'm hurt by it, And I try to suppress that here.
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I'm like, oh, that's not true.
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That's not true.
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It's me playing defense.
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And in a lot of ways, me playing defense in that sense, is me attacking myself.
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acting like I need to play defense.
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But we don't really need to defend ourselves from anything in
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that regard when it comes to the self because the self is just an idea we hold on to.
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It's an idea that we've sort of been prescribed at birth, a script that we've been given, but that doesn't necessarily mean That is not subject to our own writing.
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A lot of us don't recognize that we have the pen in our hand or at least we have the opportunity to.
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But many of us instead of writing our own story, tend to give it to the world around us and tell ourselves instead of You know, recognizing that we're creating a lot of the things around us.
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We tell ourselves that it's being created for us.
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We tell ourselves that this is my experience, or this is my life, and this is coming at me, this is happening to me.
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but never I'm happening to it.
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we always have an impact on our situations.
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We're always a part of the life we live.
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And I think until we acknowledge the fact that we're actually here, We're not really doing anything.
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And I don't mean that to say no one's contributing to anything in their lives or anything like that.
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But to say, I think I value presence a lot.
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Um...
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And recently I've been thinking about it because I haven't really been acknowledging the parts of my character that actually exist.
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You know, I can recognize that the self is the idea we hold on to, but it's a necessary idea.
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You know, we live in a world that sort of needs us to have expression.
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And I think...
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Part of the beauty that I was missing in my own experience is my own.
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not recognizing my own contributions to my own experience and how I actually felt.
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And that's why I think Understanding how you really feel is important
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because once you figure out what you like and what you favor and what you care about
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you're actually able to enjoy it with such moral favor Because it's not about how everyone else feels about anything, it's about how you feel about it.
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And in that way you become a part of everything around you.
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you actually become instantiated in the world that you exist in and I think that's a beautiful thing.
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to actually acknowledge that you're here, to actually acknowledge every single thing that contributes to who you are like your mannerisms your style your You're this,
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you're this, you're that, that all the things that make you you.
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And of course those things shift and change, but that doesn't mean that our gratitudes have to live in reference to each other
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We can appreciate everything that we currently are for everything that it currently is. and leave it there.
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Like I think sometimes we think our feelings have to live in reference to each other.
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That's another thing.
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I've been letting myself feel both ends of the spectrum for something.
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Like there are certain things in my life that I'm like, Okay.
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I feel this way about it and I also feel this way.
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Like I feel positive and I feel negative.
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And I think sometimes we think we have to choose one.
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that we have to have so much conflict within ourselves
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but it's not really a resolution we're seeking what we're seeking is our own internal peace.
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And the only thing halting it is us thinking that it needs to be one specific way.
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But if we just accept to ourselves that I feel this and I also feel this, then we need to do nothing.
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I think we have to recognize how multi -dimensional, how multi -faceted, how Uh...
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Multitudinal that we actually are.
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Basically saying that we have so many aspects so many different ideas so many different perspectives that all are housed within us.
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Because we have to recognize at some point that our perspective can shift
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and change with pretty much anything we do the second we look at something and we decide to look at it differently, the second we look at something and we actually allow ourselves to be a part of it.
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is the second we recognize that how we look at it can shift and change depending on our choice.
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Like, I can look at this mountain behind me.
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Guys, it's a mountain bike.
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I can look at this mountain behind me.
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And I could think nothing.
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Or I could think this mountain is beautiful.
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I can think this mountain is beautiful and still not feel anything though.
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But I can also not say anything and feel the beauty Stay with me, please.
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What I'm trying to get at basically is The world is always painted with your own beauty.
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The beauty that you allow yourself to have
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and the beauty you allow yourself to truly give or the beauty that you allow yourself to allow.
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I think that All things are sort of beautiful by nature.
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And that doesn't necessarily mean that all atrocities in the world, I'm not talking about stuff like that, I really just mean Matrix things that are natural, things that are here.
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I think there's always a way to look at any situation or anything
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in a way that actually allows us to be Us that allows us to continue to have our own best interests.
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allows us to accommodate ourselves.
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I think accommodation is also something very important.
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Hold on over.
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I don't know.
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I can't see that far.
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Accommodation is also very important.
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We have to.. in a lot of ways, give ourselves enough space And I think sometimes we don't give ourselves space.
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because we think that it has to be earned rather than something that's already been taken up.
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you're already taking up the space you're taking up.
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You're already being the person that you are.
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And I think sometimes
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in thinking that we have to change or in wanting our change so fervently
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We don't really acknowledge the current beauty that we possess.
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we don't really acknowledge all the things that we currently are and
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It sort of keeps us in a box of our own idea
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because instead of actually being within the world and experiencing that person that you
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We experience it in our heads and think that we have to do this, this, that, and the other in order to align with ourselves.
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But that doesn't work.
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Or at least it's not working for me anymore because...
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It feels like I'm trying to do myself the right way.
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But there should be no right way to do yourself your
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alignment is found by you actually finding about you being within yourself enough to actually
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figure out how things make you feel and what it is that you actually want to do with whatever feeling you have.
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But if we never really give ourselves the opportunity to listen to our feelings or our true thoughts, then all we're doing is rehearsing something that we think is right.
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And then we're just living in a thought.
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You know?
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But if we really accept to ourselves that thinking is not the objective
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or we accept to ourselves that we don't need to think all the time
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and we give ourselves an opportunity to sort of be where we are.
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and leave it there we can just be where we are.
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I think a lot of people don't recognize that they can just be It's sort of hard, especially in the world that we live in, given that We have so many things that sort of define our character,
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define everything that we are, like our job, our social status, our race, our so many identifiers.
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But that has nothing to do with being in a way.
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Like, you're alive.
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Your life that lives and I want to articulate this in a way that actually presents the feeling but
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to know that you actually exist or to at least be here enough to acknowledge that you're something.
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It's a beautiful thing Regardless,
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it's admitting to yourself that you never really needed anything to be where you are.
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Because you never have.
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I like the idea that we're always enough for where we are.
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We're always enough for who we are because if we weren't, we wouldn't be here.
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How could you not be enough where you are?
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How could you be behind on your own journey?
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It's sort of the same thing over and over again and many times us asking questions takes away the answer.
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And I don't mean that to say that we shouldn't be curious.
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about what defines our character or what things go into that order what we want to be.
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But to say True curiosity takes exploration It takes us actually taking a step outside of who we think we are.
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into who we actually are.
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It takes us going within.
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Going within at least in my perspective now is not just thinking about it
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because I I used to think that's all that introspection, all that spiritual aspect was.
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I'm gonna go within, I'm just gonna think about everything that I am gonna think.
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And that's helpful in some sense. But I think...
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what most people are trying to get to isn't more thought.
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It's more self, it's more being, it's more presence.
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And I think that type of going within is actually sitting with our thoughts and feelings.
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actually Not separating ourselves from them, but recognizing that we are not them.
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recognizing that we're already separate from them in a lot of ways.
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And that doesn't mean that your thoughts don't correlate to who you are.
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It all sort of works in tandem.
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But it all stems from what we're aware of.
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It all stems from the core of who we are.
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It all stems from our awareness in a lot of ways.
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Like, Who we are is just something we're aware of being
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and the fact that we're aware of being is what continues it And Okay,
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it sort of like works with our labels and qualities we've labeled ourselves maybe like Something like a shy or, or...
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anxious.
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Now whenever we get in a situation That's what's gonna come up because that's what we are aware of being But...
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If we were to change that, Like become aware of our own confidence, become aware of this is that and the other
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it would be expressed and that's why I think we're never really finding ourselves but becoming more aware of what's there.
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And we could talk about hypnosis and consciousness.
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We could talk about all that stuff.
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If someone's hypnotized and told that they're the most confident person, they're going to express it in their own way.
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You know, because they understand that that confidence, whatever that aspect is, already lies within them.
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It just takes us actually being aware that that's who we want to be
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and holding onto those aspects rather than those aspects that we want to let go.
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Who we are is always a commitment that we're making.
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And until we start making that commitment with intention, all we're going to be committed to is the same life that we've always lived.
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And that's not always a bad thing.
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You know, if you love your life, you love it.
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You can love your life and be committed to whatever.
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You can love your life and not change a thing.
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All I'm saying is.. we have the freedom enough to actually change who we are and Yes.
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Become what we desire.
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Um...
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or desire to become or Just become.
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or sort of be outside of our desires enough to just be.
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We have so many options within us and I think it's important to acknowledge that at least for ourselves
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Not so we can Always take action.
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but so we can acknowledge actions that can be taken.
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You know?
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I think there's...
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I don't know.
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To be honest, there's just so much you can say about that.
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Like, life is sort of one of those things that
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ever expansive and
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Who we are is also one of those things that's ever expansive And until we give ourselves an opportunity to acknowledge that,
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We're going to think we're so fine that we'd never really have the chance to do anything.
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and I don't know, I think the whole point of my channel here, the whole point of what I've been doing is sort of to understand an aspect of mental freedom and order.
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It's to...
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You know, understand that there are certain limitations that exist within us that we need to get rid of
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for our own sake.
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not to say that there's a certain way you need to be but To say that you know what that is.
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You know, we all need to find alignment with ourselves in a lot of ways.
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I'm speaking from a standpoint of not really knowing what that is 100 % But I'm attempting, I'm doing my best.
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And that's all we can do.
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All we can do is do what we can with what we have.
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And I think as long as we're doing that, we can give ourselves enough freedom, enough liberty to be happy with who we are.
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regardless of our change because
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In the same way that our gratitude shouldn't live in reference to each other when it comes to anything
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that we receive Our gratitude shouldn't live in reference to each other when it comes to who we are.
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We should love ourselves just as much as we would love ourselves if we were a little bit different.
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because our love never really needed a condition.
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It needed us.
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to be present enough to acknowledge the love that's always present.
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the love that is our life itself.
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ball up top Keep hearing y 'all, keep hearing y 'all.
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Make sure you take care of yourself.
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Do what you can, what you have.
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Man, I'll...
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Just take a glance at what I'm glancing at.
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You feel me?
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Isn't that something?
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Welp.
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Y 'all keep being P?
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Um...
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, we will explore the concept of allowing emotions to coexist with our identities. This video discusses the importance of embracing feelings rather than dismissing them, prompting a transformative understanding of how we perceive ourselves. You'll practice articulating complex emotional concepts in English, which is essential for both IELTS speaking practice and in everyday conversations. As you tackle this lesson, you'll enhance your speaking clarity and emotional vocabulary, helping you engage more deeply with diverse topics.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Let go: To release control or attachment to something.
- Emotional charge: The intensity or impact of a feeling.
- Acknowledge: To accept the existence or truth of something.
- Reflective: Relating to or characterized by deep thought.
- Accept: To recognize and deal with a feeling or situation.
- Intention: A plan or purpose behind an action.
- Stunted: Impeded growth or development.
- See past yourself: To gain perspective beyond your current emotional state.
Practice Tips
To effectively use the shadowing technique while watching this video, follow these tailored tips:
- Choose Your Moments: Select phrases or sentences that resonate with you, especially those involving emotional expression. This will enrich your vocabulary for IELTS speaking practice.
- Match the Pace: The speaker’s tone may fluctuate. Practice shadowing with attention to speed; sometimes they articulate slowly, while at other times they may speak more quickly. Using a shadowing app can help you adjust playback speed.
- Emphasize Emotion: When shadowing, focus on the emotions behind the words. This will improve your intonation and make your speech more engaging and authentic.
- Break It Down: If certain sections are challenging, pause frequently to repeat smaller phrases. This technique will help solidify your understanding of the emotional language.
- Reflect on Your Feelings: After shadowing, take a few moments to write down how you feel about the phrases or topics discussed. This personal engagement will enhance your learning experience.
Through these practices, not only will you improve your English speaking skills, but you will also learn to express complex thoughts about emotions more effectively. By embracing the shadow speech technique, you can better connect with the content and prepare for various speaking situations.
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 thinking · I've been letting |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to have · used to do · used to think |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been given · being stunted · is unaffected |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've never been given · I've recognized · I've mentioned |
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.