Shadowing Practice: Why You Can't Stop Worrying About the Future - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Picture this.
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You're sitting at your desk trying to focus on work, but your mind keeps replaying that awkward conversation from yesterday.
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You analyze every word you say, wondering if it came across wrong.
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Then, suddenly, your brain jumps to tomorrow's big presentation, imagining all the ways that it could go wrong.
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Before you know it, you've spent 20 minutes mentally bouncing between yesterday and tomorrow, and you haven't accomplished a single thing in the present moment.
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If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
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Your brain has a tendency to take these mental trips through time, and while it might feel like it's random wandering,
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there's actually a sophisticated neurological process happening behind the scenes.
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I'm Dr. Tracy Marks, a psychiatrist, and I make mental health videos to help you strengthen your mind, fortify your brain, and build resilience.
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We're starting a new module in our resilience series focused on rewiring thought patterns.
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Today, we're going to explore why your brain won't stop its mental time travel and, more importantly, how you can anchor yourself in the present moment.
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Mental time travel is your brain's ability to revisit the past or imagine the future, and this ability is actually a sign of an evolved brain.
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We need to learn from experience or plan ahead and make thoughtful decisions.
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The problem is your brain doesn't always use this feature wisely.
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It tends to revisit past events or painful events over and over,
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replaying that awkward conversation, reliving the moment that you made a mistake, or catastrophizing about something that might happen in the future.
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And when your brain gets stuck in these loops, it's not just a mental habit, it's a neural habit.
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And that's because these loops are largely driven by your default mode network.
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This is a collection of brain regions that activate when you're not focused on the outside world, like when you're daydreaming or self -reflecting.
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Think of the default mode network as your brain's screensaver.
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When you're not actively focused on a specific task, this network becomes active,
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and it has a particular job to constantly scan the mental landscape looking for unresolved issues
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or potential threats or important information that you might have missed.
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The default mode network actually is useful for creativity and reflection, but when it's overly active, it can lead to rumination and worry.
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Your brain essentially creates vivid simulations of past or future events,
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and emotionally, your body responds as if these things are happening now.
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It also uses up cognitive resources that you need for present moment tasks.
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Research shows that people who spend more time in rumination and worry have decreased working memory capacity.
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That's not good.
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It's like having multiple browser tabs open on your computer, each one draining processing power and slowing down your current task.
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There's also a physiological cost to this.
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Mental time travel, especially when it involves stress or anxiety, keeps your cortisol levels elevated.
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And this chronic stress response can impact everything from your immune system to your sleep quality.
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And you're essentially putting your body through stress responses for events that have either already happened or might never happen.
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That's mental time travel.
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And if you don't know how to bring yourself back, it can erode your emotional resilience over time.
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So how do you recognize when your brain has left the present moment?
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And this is what we call developing temporal awareness.
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And it's a skill that you can train.
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Start paying attention to the quality of your thoughts.
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Are you analyzing something that already happened?
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Are you planning or worrying about something in the future?
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Simply noticing this mental movement is the first step.
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You might also notice physical signs when your brain is traveling.
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Your breathing might become shallow.
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Your shoulders might tense up or you might feel that familiar knot in your stomach that comes with anxiety or regret.
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These bodily sensations can serve as early warning signals that your mind has wandered away from the present moment.
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Some people are more prone to past -focused rumination, especially after difficult experiences or feeling down.
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Others tend to be more future -focused worriers, especially when they're facing uncertainty or change.
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Many people do both depending on their emotional state and what's happening in their lives at the time.
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Once you notice when you're time traveling, you can anchor yourself back to the present moment.
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Anchoring is important because it gives you space between the thought and your reaction.
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It helps you regulate your nervous system
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and it creates the mental clarity you need to use cognitive tools like reframing or thought challenging.
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It's the mental equivalent of pulling the emergency brake when your mind is speeding out of control.
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Let me show you how to do it with three techniques
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that interrupt the default mode network and engage different parts of your brain.
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The first technique is to label the timeframe.
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Just name what your brain is doing.
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You might say to yourself, this is past focused thoughts, or this is future worry.
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That may seem small, but when you do this, you're activating the part of your brain that's responsible for metacognition,
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which is your ability to think about your thoughts.
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It also gets your prefrontal cortex involved, and this is the part of your brain that helps with emotional regulation and rational thinking.
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So just labeling the thoughts shift you out of autopilot and into observation mode.
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And you're not arguing with the thought, you're just naming it and stepping back.
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And that alone can be enough to weaken its grip.
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The second strategy is to use body -based or sensory anchors to bring your attention back to the here and now.
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And here are a few ways to do that.
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You can feel your feet on the floor.
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Just literally press them down and notice the pressure.
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You can bring your hands together and feel the texture of your fingertips.
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Or you can take yourself through the classic 5 -4 -3 -2 -1 grounding technique
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and that is name five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell,
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and one thing you can taste or imagine tasting.
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This sensory reset pulls your attention out of the mental story and into the current physical experience.
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Another great anchor is your breath, and you can try this right now.
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Take a slow breath in, and the longer breath out.
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Then do that two more times, silently saying the words inhale and exhale in your mind as you breathe.
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You've just shifted out of default mode and into conscious regulation.
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If you find it hard to remember these techniques at the moment, my Essential Tools card deck includes eight grounding strategies just like these,
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things that you can do anywhere, anytime to calm your mind and get back to center.
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And these are cards 39 through 46 in the deck, and I designed them to be used on the go,
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because usually we need help when we're in it and not afterwards.
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The third strategy is to create a pattern interrupt, and this is something brief and physical that breaks the loop.
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And here are a few examples.
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Say the word stop out loud.
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Stand up and stretch.
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Snap a rubber band on your wrist.
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Clap your hands or splash cold water on your face.
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Even walking into a different room can be enough to shift your brain out of its groove.
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These might seem simple, but they work because they interrupt the loop before it gains momentum.
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And to be clear, you're not trying to pretend that the thought isn't there.
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You're just giving your brain something different to focus on so that when you return to the thought, you can evaluate it more clearly.
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Ideally, you want to make anchoring a daily practice and not something you only do when you're overwhelmed.
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If you create the habit when you're not emotionally charged, it becomes easier to do when you're worked up
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because it's more of a reflex that kicks in instead of this mental exercise that you have to remember to employ.
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And it's not like you have to set aside an hour to do this.
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Even two minutes a day is enough to make a difference.
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Here's one way to do it.
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Choose a moment that happens every day, like brushing your teeth, drinking coffee, or starting your workday.
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And then during that moment, do a 60 -second presence check.
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Feel your breath.
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Notice your surroundings.
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Come back to your body.
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By practicing when you're calm, you can train your brain to find that state more easily when you're stressed.
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It's like building a muscle.
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You don't wait until a crisis starts to start doing push -ups.
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You build the strength ahead of time so when the moment comes, you already have the capacity.
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So let's bring this all together.
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Your brain is designed to think about the past and the future.
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That's normal.
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The problem comes when you get stuck in these thought loops.
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Anchoring yourself to the present doesn't mean shutting down your thoughts.
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It means learning how to notice where your mind is
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and gently guiding it back when it's wandered too far off the range.
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This is the first step to rewiring your thought patterns
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because it gives you the awareness and clarity to start making intentional choices instead of reacting to mental habits on autopilot.
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In our next video, we'll take the next step toward looking at how to shift your internal dialogue,
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the voice in your head that narrates your day.
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Because whether that voice is your biggest.. critic or your strongest supporter.
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It plays a huge role in your mental resilience.
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If you found this video helpful, be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss the next one.
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And if you want a tool to help you ground your thoughts in real time, you can use my Essential Tools card deck at mentalwellnessspace .store.
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It's like having your own pocket -sized reset button for your brain.
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Thanks for watching today.
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I'll see you in the next video.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why You Can't Stop Worrying About the Future”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: brain, mental, moment, present. This video has 127 sentences and 1697 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:37. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| anchor noun | /ˈæŋ.kəː/ | A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| default noun | /dɪˈfɔlt/ | The condition of failing to meet an obligation. |
| loop noun | /luːp/ | A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening. |
| technique noun | /tɛkˈniːk/ | The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| resilience noun | /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/ | The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune. |
| deck noun | /ˈdɛk/ | Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop. |
| wander verb | /ˈwɑndɚ/ | To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood. |
| interrupt verb | /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/ | To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| awareness noun | /əˈwɛɹ.nəs/ | The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer. |
| label noun | /ˈleɪ.bəl/ | A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached. |
| essentially adverb | /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/ | In essence: by nature. |
| regulation noun | /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/ | The act of regulating or the condition of being regulated. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. | |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| plan ahead verb | To schedule or plan extensively for problems before it is needed; to come up with solutions before problems occur; to prepare for future situations. | |
| set aside verb | /sɛt.əˈsaɪd/ | To separate and reserve something for a specific purpose. |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. | |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. | |
| stand up verb | To rise from a lying or sitting position. | |
| step back verb | /stɛp ˈbæk/ | To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
- Are you analyzing something that already happened?
- Are you planning or worrying about something in the future?
- I'll see you in the next video.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 34 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, thoughtful /ˈθɔːtfəl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, brush /bɹʌʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
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 anchor, breathe, default.
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.