Shadowing Andy Puddicombe

Summary

Andy Puddicombe argues that caring for the mind deserves a small, regular place in daily life. He recalls attending meditation as a child and later becoming a monk after a difficult period. The central explanation uses juggling to illustrate a balance between concentration and relaxation. He presents mindfulness as learning to notice thoughts and emotions clearly, rather than trying to eliminate them or force the mind under control.

Key points, in order

1. Puddicombe begins by asking when the audience last spent ten undisturbed minutes doing nothing. He contrasts the mind’s importance with the limited attention people give to looking after it amid constant activity.
2. His experience of meditation changed from seeing it as occasional relief to appreciating its role in becoming present. He cites research about wandering attention as part of his case for developing this skill.
3. The juggling demonstration shows how excessive effort creates tension while too little attention loses focus. He proposes watching thoughts come and go with a relaxed, nonjudgmental awareness.
4. An anxious thought can become a repeated story that adds anxiety about anxiety itself. Meditation, he suggests, offers distance from these patterns and a different way to experience circumstances that cannot always be changed.

Five useful phrases to practise

Choose a caption line to open Repeat mode. Listen, then say it after the speaker.

1. 0:15 We live in an incredibly busy world.
2. 2:14 That's really not how it has to be.
3. 5:34 It's familiarizing ourselves with the present moment.
4. 7:13 And before we know it, right, we're anxious about feeling anxious.
5. 8:46 but we can change the way that we experience it.

Based on the video’s captions. Original video: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes | Andy Puddicombe | TED · TED.

Everyday phrases from this video

• you know
• end up
• sort of

• Level: B1–B2
• Accent: British
• Length: 9 min · 119 lines to practise
• Speed: about 171 words a minute (faster than most talks)
• Words: about 1,540; the talk asks 5 questions
• Timing: Sada measures how far behind the speaker you are on every line

What to focus on in this talk

Use the opening questions to practise asking about the last time someone did something.

What this talk trains

Andy Puddicombe speaks for about 9 minutes: roughly 1,540 words in 119 caption lines. The pace stays fairly even, about 178 words a minute in the first quarter and 167 in the last. Overall it is faster than 43 of the other 66 talks on Sada. Its sentences average 16.4 words, longer than the middle of the library (14.3), and 12.7% of its words fall outside the 3,000 most common English words (library middle: 12.9%). It asks 5 questions, so there is plenty of question intonation to copy. Phrases that fast speech often shortens come up again and again: “sort of” (5 times) and “going to” (4 times).

Lines from across the talk, and what each one trains

One line from each quarter of the talk. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record. “Linking” marks words that run together: a word ending in a consonant sound joins the vowel that starts the next one.

1. 2:11 that's the way life is, so we've just kind of got to get on with it.

   “got to”: fast speech often shortens it to “gotta” when a verb follows. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “kind of”, “get on” without a break between the words.

2. 2:51 I hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature,

   “sort of”: fast speech often shortens it to “sorta”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “that it”, “sort of” without a break between the words.

3. 4:59 I don't know, it just kind of seems tragic, actually,

   “kind of”: fast speech often shortens it to “kinda”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Several commas: say it in short chunks first, then as one line.

4. 7:32 But what do you do every 20, 30 seconds?

   A question: listen to where the voice rises or falls at the end, and copy it. A number (20): practise saying it at the speaker’s speed.

Words that keep coming up

Words outside the 3,000 most common English words that Andy Puddicombe uses more than once. The number is how often each is said. Look up any you don’t know, then press it to practise the line where it first comes up.

• meditation ×9
• emotions ×5
• distracted ×4
• mindful ×4
• anxious ×4
• monk ×3
• worried ×3
• busy ×2

How the pace changes through the talk

The fastest minute starts at 2:05 (about 211 words a minute): practise that minute once the rest feels easy. The slowest starts at 3:53 (about 143): a good minute to warm up with.

Measured from the caption timing, so the numbers are close, not exact.

How the talk opens: press any line to practise it

1. 0:15 We live in an incredibly busy world.
2. 0:18 The pace of life is often frantic, our minds are always busy, and we're always doing something.
3. 0:24 So with that in mind, I'd like you just to take a moment to think, when did you last take any time to do nothing?
4. 0:32 Just 10 minutes, undisturbed?
5. 0:34 And when I say nothing, I do mean nothing.
6. 0:36 So that's no emailing, texting, no Internet, no TV, no chatting, no eating, no reading.

How to practise this talk

1. Warm up on the slowest minute (from 3:53) or on the opening lines above.
2. Then take the chosen lines above one at a time: a shortened phrase, linked words, a line said in chunks, a question, a number.
3. On each line, press Record and say it after Andy Puddicombe (Repeat) or along with them (Shadow), then open Compare and go again until every word is green.
4. Save the fastest minute (from 2:05, about 211 words a minute) for last.
5. At one minute a day you finish the whole talk in about 9 days, and Sada shows your first try against your latest.

More talks to practise

• Julian Treasure — How to Speak So That People Want to Listen (B1–B2 · 173 words a minute · same level)
• Simon Sinek — Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe (B1–B2 · 169 words a minute · same level)
• Sir Ken Robinson — Do Schools Kill Creativity? (B2 · 165 words a minute · same accent)
• Sir Ken Robinson — Bring on the Learning Revolution! (B1 · 149 words a minute · same accent)

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