#442 - Learn 30 Advanced Expressions From This Powerful TED Talk — Best TED Talks for Learning English
37:23 Share

Aww yeah, Global Citizen. This is Ethan from RealLife English, where every single week, it is our mission to take you beyond the classroom to speak English confidently and naturally, to connect to the world, and to actually use your English as the doorway to your greatest dreams.

All right. So I've selected some of the parts of this Ted talk that I thought were the most interesting and that offer you the best vocabulary expressions for your everyday life. So we have broken this down into three clips and what we'll do is we'll watch each clip. Then I'll explain to you all of these vocabulary expressions that are most challenging before watching the next clip. Hi. Yeah. So let's jump right into the Ted talk.

But on the morning of December 10, 1996, I woke up to discover that I had a brain disorder of my own. A blood vessel exploded in the left half of my brain. And in the course of four hours, I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information.

On the morning of the hemorrhage, I could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of my life. I essentially became an infant in a woman's body.

All right, so first of all, she talks about having a brain disorder. So I woke up to discover that I had a brain disorder of my own. So a disorder is just something that doesn't function properly. And we can use this with many different organs in our body. So you could have a brain disorder, of course, but you could also have a kidney disorder, a liver disorder, and so on.

And you wouldn't use this, for example, let's say you have a foot disorder. It's mostly for organs. But we do have other collocations you can find it in. For example, someone could have an eating disorder, which would be something like anorexia that they have problems with eating enough. And so you might look for different ways that you find this being used when you're consuming different content.

And next she talks about that in the course of four hours that she watched her brain completely deteriorate. So if something happens in the course of an amount of time, it means that it's developing during that amount of time. So you might say that in the course of days, the city became chaotic because there was a shortage of electricity. Something that just happened here on Monday, actually, is that we had a huge power outage in all of Spain that you might've heard about.

On the morning of the hemorrhage, I could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of my life.

All right. And there's a really nice term that she used here, which is recall. And this is, it gives us a good opportunity to look at some word formation. So this is the combination of re, which is a prefix meaning again, and call, which you probably know, like call someone on the phone. Right. But when we use call in this sort of context, it means that you're trying to ask for information. So by recalling you're calling for information again,

In other words, it just means to remember but this is a nice alternative you can use for the word remember. So it's really nice how she used the word essentially here. So this is like a synonym for basically

and it means that you're saying that in summary or you're saying that another way of saying this is so for example vocabulary flashcards essentially are like magic for remembering new words that you learn in English. Alright so in the next clip Jill explains to us the different functions of the two halves of our brain. Let's watch.

Because they process information differently, each of our hemispheres think about different things, they care about different things, and dare I say, they have very different personalities. Our right human hemisphere is all about this present moment. It's all about right here, right now. Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures, and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies.

Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems, and then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like, what this present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like.

I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere.

We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family. And right here, right now, we are brothers and sisters on this planet, here to make the world a better place. And in this moment, we are perfect, we are whole, and we are beautiful. My left hemisphere, our left hemisphere, is a very different place.

Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically. Our left hemisphere is all about the past, and it's all about the future. Our left hemisphere is designed to take that enormous collage of the present moment and start picking out details, details, and more details about those details,

It then categorizes and organizes all that information, associates it with everything in the past we've ever learned, and projects into the future all of our possibilities. And our left hemisphere thinks in language.

Alright, so she starts off with this nice expression, "dare I say", which you can use when you're about to present an opinion that might be controversial or might be considered a bit strange.

And she's using it here basically because she says that, dare I say, these two sides of our brains have very different personalities. And that's a bit surprising because she's treating the brain, the two sides of the brain, almost as if they were people, almost as if they were living things when in fact they're part of you, they're part of a living thing. So that's maybe a bit contrary belief to think two parts of you could have their own personalities.

Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems. Now to understand this next expression, we'd have to know what a stream is. A stream is like a very small river. And if you've seen a stream, you know that you can have many of them that flow from different places down into a bigger body of water like a river or like a lake.

and she's using it here more in a figurative sense saying to stream in so like as a phrasal verb that in the same way information or energy can move in a direction and go together into one place so like how information comes from all around but it joins together in your brain so that your brain can process all that information.

streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems, and then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like, what this present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like, and what it sounds like.

And then she uses a really nice analogy here with the word collage. Collage is basically a piece of art where you take many different photos or images and you put them in together to kind of create a new piece of art. So basically she's saying that our brain does this thing of taking all the information and puts it together into sort of a new thing where we're

taking that information and processing it based on our own experience with the past and projecting that into what might happen in the future. And the word enormous here just means that something is very, very big.

I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere. So when she uses being here, that basically just means a living thing. So we're all human beings. But she says that she's an energy being or we're energy beings, which means that we're these living things that are made up of energy. Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically.

Okay, so as she explains here, the left hemisphere of our brain is very logical. So it processes information linearly and methodically.

So it processes information linearly and methodically, which basically just means that it structures it in a way that is able to be understood through logic. Our left hemisphere is designed to take that enormous collage of the present moment and start picking out details, details, and more details about those details.

Alright, so maybe you go to your closet in the morning and you open it up and you pick out what you want to wear for the day out of all of the different clothes that you have, right?

And our brain does the same thing, that it takes in all of this information and it picks out the details that we perceive as being most important. It then categorizes and organizes all that information, associates it with everything in the past we've ever learned, and projects into the future all of our possibilities.

So if you associate two or more things, you try to find out how they're connected to each other, what they have in common. And we can also use this in a sense that you don't connect with certain people. So you might say like you don't associate with people who use drugs.

and our left hemisphere thinks in language. It's that ongoing brain chatter that connects me and my internal world to my external world. - This word chatter is a really nice word. So I'm sure you've heard the word chat before. Like you have a chat with someone, you have a talk with someone. And chatter basically is when you're hearing a bunch of people talking. And pretty much all of us have this radio, this talking that's constantly happening in our head, right?

And she uses the word ongoing, which means that it's continuous. It's consistent. So basically ongoing brain chatter means this, these voices in our head that we have going on all the time that pretty much, unless you're an experienced meditator, you probably don't have many pauses to.

Alright, so the next part is really interesting because Jill, as a neuroscience, actually experienced a stroke. So she knows the brain super well and she could first-hand have the experience of what it was like losing the connection with the left hemisphere of her brain, which is that logical part that she just was discussing about.

So let's see what her experience was like being fully present just in the right side of her brain. Now I lost my balance and I'm propped up against the wall.

And I looked down at my arm and I realized that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall.

and all I could detect was this energy. And I'm asking myself, "What is wrong with me? What is going on?" And in that moment, my brain chatter, my left hemisphere brain chatter, went totally silent, just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button. Total silence.

And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there.

Imagine what it would be like to be totally disconnected from your brain chatter that connects you to the external world. So here I am in this space, and my job and any stress related to my job, it was gone. And I felt lighter in my body. And imagine all of the relationships in the external world and any stressors related to any of those, they were gone. And I felt this sense of peacefulness.

And imagine what it would feel like to lose 37 years of emotional baggage! Oh! I felt euphoria. Then the next thing my brain says to me is, "Wow! This is so cool! This is so cool! How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?"

Nice. I really love her way of talking and even her sense of humor. So the first expression we're going to look at is being propped up or propped up against something. So what she's saying basically is because she lost her balance, she had to support herself against the wall. And we could also say, for example, the camera that I'm talking to you through right now is propped up on a tripod. So it's basically one thing being supported by a second thing.

And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. Now the boundary of something is basically the wall or border or barrier of something. So for example, if you live in a house, you probably have a fence that's like the boundary between your property and your neighbor's property.

But we can also use this word in a bunch of other senses. For example, we can talk about emotional boundaries. Like if you're in a relationship with someone, with your boyfriend or girlfriend, let's say, you might need to establish some boundaries in your relationship so that you feel an emotional well-being.

I can't define where I begin and where I end because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall. All right, in your kitchen, you might have an appliance that's called a blender. Now, a blender, basically, you throw a bunch of things into and you press a button and it combines them so much that you can't tell any of the

individual pieces of the items that you threw in there anymore. They kind of just become one liquid, right? And so if things blend together, the reason we call this a blender is because the two or more things are combining together to form almost something new. So she's saying that the molecules of her arm blended with the atoms of the wall. So it kind of just all looked like it was the same thing to her.

Detect is basically to notice. So you might have detected as I'm speaking some connected speech, which is how we need to cut, reduce and connect our words together. So instead of saying, for example, what you, I would usually say what you, what you. So if you notice that you could also say that you detected me using some connected speech.

And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. If something captivates you, it grabs your attention, it fascinates you, it makes you really curious, right?

And she talks about the magnificence of the energy around her. We use magnificent usually to explain something that leaves a speechless, that's really large, really grand in size or an impact. And ultimately, that's something that's really beautiful. So you could see a magnificent sunrise or sunset, right? Or maybe you hike up to the top of a mountain and just

just the view, you know, it just leaves you breathless. It's this magnificent view there at the top of the mountain. I felt enormous and expansive. If something expands, basically it grows in size, like how they say that the universe is always expanding. So her saying that she felt expansive, she felt like she was growing, kind of just connecting with everything around her. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was

Beautiful there. Now this expression is really nice to feel at one with something means that you feel connected to that thing. You've almost feel like you've unified with that thing.

An example of this might be if you've ever taken a hike out in nature and you just feel the sense of peacefulness because you feel at one with the place you're at, with the forest for example, and all the smells of the pine trees, the sounds of the birds chirping around you, you know, and just kind of like the breeze on your skin. So you really feel at one with that place in nature. And imagine all of the relationships in the external world and any stressors related to any of those, they were gone.

And I felt this sense of peacefulness. A stressor basically is anything that makes you feel stressed. So this could be like your work or maybe all the notifications on our phones oftentimes can be stressors. And imagine what it would feel like to lose 37 years of emotional baggage. Oh, I felt euphoria. All right, so this is kind of a funny expression. So

You probably know what baggage is. It's like the suitcase that you take when you travel. You might check baggage below the plane, right? But she's using it figuratively here. Emotional baggage is sort of all of the trauma, the difficult experiences we had when we were younger that tend to impact how we react to things, the different emotions that we experience emotionally.

from different triggers as we're adults. And many of us might be dealing with this through therapy or through journaling and so on. So all of us have emotional baggage. And being able to drop off that emotional baggage, she feels euphoria. Euphoria is just a feeling of immense joy, fulfillment, being completely in the moment, and ultimately just feeling like ecstasy. All right, so we have finished the clips that we are going to be learning vocabulary with.

But I highly recommend that you go and you check out the entire Ted talk. The finale of it is really incredible. I think it'll impact you emotionally like it did for me. And it's a really great way for you to test and challenge everything that you've learned today, just to see how much better you understand it after we've learned all this vocabulary. But we're not done yet. Next, I want to talk to you about how you really, how all of us can make our unique impact on the world. So in the intro of every one of our podcasts, right, we say,

how learning English can be the doorway to the life of your dreams. And that's something that we're really trying to help you with. We really believe that English is this fantastic tool to help you to make your unique impact in the world because on the one hand, it gives you access to all sorts of really great information like this TED Talk that we just watched today, right? And on the other hand, it gives you the ability to be able to communicate with

people from all around the world. And this is people who, you know, didn't just grow up in your part of the world where people probably have kind of a similar way of doing things, of thinking, and similar rituals that they follow and so on.

but people who have had very different life experiences from your own, who have unique points of views. And talking to people like this, I think it's like one of the most impactful things you can do as a human being because it completely blows open. In other words, it really expands your ability to understand the world and just to have more of an open mind as a human being. All right, so I want to share with you another short clip that we haven't seen yet from the TED Talk and talk about it a little bit. Let's check that out.

Alright, so what Jill is referring to here, this sense of "I am, I am,"

from the left hemisphere of our brain. This is our ego. And this is something I wanted to talk to you a little bit about. So what is the ego? So most of us, when we hear this word, we tend to think of maybe someone who's really arrogant, who only thinks about themselves, who maybe thinks that they're the best thing since sliced bread. That's a really nice expression in English.

And actually right now, me alongside with some different people from the RealLife English team and people from our community, we're doing a book club right now on the book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. And I'd have to say that he really is the expert on ego and the impact that ego has on us. So I want to bring to you a short clip of him talking about what is the ego.

The ego is a sense of self that arises when the mind is completely unobserved. The unobserved mind

brings about the ego. In fact, the unobserved mind is the ego. These are mental structures which are energy formations, because every thought is an energy formation, energy formations in your head that say, "That's me. That's me and my life."

And there are certain characteristics to this egoic state. One characteristic is that it exists in a state of frequent dissatisfaction, discontent, and there's an underlying...

Okay, so before we talk about that, I do want to break down some of the more advanced vocabulary here for you. So a couple words he used here was saying that a lot of us feel dissatisfaction, discontent, which basically mean the same thing.

So satisfaction is basically that you feel fulfilled by something, you feel that it is enough. And contentment, it's kind of like another way to say that you're happy, you know, that you feel like things are good enough. And so adding the prefix dis- to either of these, it means the opposite. Dissatisfaction, discontent just means you're not happy with or you're not fulfilled by something.

and there's an underlying, an undercurrent of something vital is missing in my life. All right, he says that there's this undercurrent of something vital is missing. So if there's an undercurrent of something, it basically means that there's something below the surface that's flowing. And that thing that is flowing below the surface basically would be maybe a thought that's present in our mind or a feeling, you know, that we...

feel like is always lingering, it's always there, is something vital is missing. Now, vital, it's a nice word. It comes from the Latin word for to live, and it means something is essential, it's crucial, something that you must have to live, in other words. So although ego can contain, like,

Like this sense of thinking that you're the best, being self-centered, being arrogant. It's not just that. It's what Jill was talking about, about being this constant brain chatter. That if it's unobserved, usually causes us suffering. Our thoughts can cause us a lot of suffering, right? Depending on what they are. Any of us that...

at any point in our life, have lied awake in bed because we can't get our mind to shut up and let us go to sleep, you've suffered from the ego. And basically what Eckhart Tolle, what Jill Bolt are trying to say is that we're not our ego. But if we're not our ego, if we're not this voice in our head, and in other words also

the personality, the mask that we sort of wear, who we believe, the sense of I am, of I am Ethan, I am the CMO of RealLife English, I live in Barcelona, I'm married to Jordi, I'm Phoebe's father, and so on.

If I'm not all these things, then what am I? And the answer is awareness. So we're going to watch a final part of that Ted talk with Jill Bolt that she digs a little bit more into her experience of being able to leave her ego behind through this experience of stroke, which hopefully for you, it's not the case that you need to go through that to be able to get a bit more to the sense of awareness. So let's have a watch.

I felt enormous and expansive like a genie just liberated from her bottle and my spirit soared free like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria. Nirvana. I found nirvana.

And I remember thinking there's no way I would ever be able to squeeze the enormousness of myself back inside this tiny little body. But then I realized, but I'm still alive. I'm still alive and I have found nirvana. And if I have found nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive can find nirvana.

and I pictured a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time and that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres and find this peace. And then I realized, what a tremendous gift

this experience could be what what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives wow that's like so beautiful i find that she has the most mesmerizing way of speaking and this is similar to a word that we saw before captivating right something is memorizing it really captures your intention it engages you it almost leaves you hypnotized

And she's just so poetic, right? You can really feel, at least I did, I really feel like this emotional after watching that. So it took Jill over eight years to fully recover from her stroke. But as we can see by this TED talk, I think she kind of took it upon herself. Her purpose was to help people to be a bit more present in the right hemisphere of their brain because

At least in Western culture, the culture I grew up in, in the United States, there's a lot more focus on the left hemisphere. Like our whole schooling system, it's all about logic, right? Like learning how to solve problems, memorizing things, taking tests, and so on. And there's very little value on the right side, on being more creative, being more present in the current moment, connecting with other people in a really deep, not superficial, self-serving way, right? Yeah.

Nirvana. I found Nirvana. So she mentions that she reached Nirvana. Now this is a term that comes from Buddhism and I thought I would read the traditional definition for you because it gives us some context. So it's a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self.

and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

Now, I don't think that Jill is a Buddhist, but I believe that she used this term basically just to mean awakening. You know, that she was able to break free from her identification with her ego. Now, I don't believe that you need to actually go through a stroke to have this sort of experience. I personally have had experience like this through extended meditation, for example. We'll talk about that in a moment. But

Eckhart Tolle talks about how awakening can even happen in a moment. It doesn't need to be this huge thing like Jill went through. You can have a glimpse of it. A glimpse is like a small view of something that lasts the blink of an eye. And a way that Eckhart Tolle talks that we can connect to this, if you've never had this experience before, is by observing the breath. Because when we observe the breath in a focused way, it stops our brain chatter.

We can't be thinking and focusing on the natural rhythm or breath at the same time. And a breath is something that's always available to us. It's always happening without us thinking about it. So if you want to join me, we can do a quick exercise that Eckhart Tolle talks about where you pay attention to three mindful breaths.

And if you can do this for more breaths, that's even great. If you can do that for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, then that's already a meditation, which can be very impactful. But even if it's just something very quick, three breaths, that's hugely impactful. So you breathe in and breathe out. You don't need to control your breath either. It's not like a yoga exercise. It's meditation. So you just let your breath have its natural rhythm. So you kind of just pay attention for a moment to find that

Pay attention where you notice it. I think everyone notices their breath a little bit different so you might notice it on your upper lip like as you're exhaling kind of the tickle on your lip. You might notice it more in your diaphragm, in your in your belly, your stomach, or in the expansion of your chest. So just find a moment where do you most notice your breath. Once you have a sense of that then we can just do this. Take a pause and pay attention to the next three breaths.

Now, it's okay if some thoughts come about while you're doing this. It's natural if you've never done any meditation before. It is really difficult to focus even on just three breaths. But try your best to just put all of your attention towards your breathing.

I hope you enjoyed that very brief moment of presence. I mean, for me, it's great. I'm here on the pressure of the podcast and everything, like trying to make sure I get all the information I want to to you guys and like just doing that. I already feel like I was able to stop for a moment and become grounded again. And if you enjoy that, I think that's kind of like I said, just like a taste of meditation. If you're

curious about some of the things that we're talking about today with Jill Bolt and Eckhart Tolle, then you might want to try out meditation if you've never tried it. Or even if you are an experienced meditator, then I'll give you some recommendations for three apps that I think are really fantastic. I've used them all myself. I use some of them every day. The one that I'm currently using is called The Way. I started using this maybe like this year, like a month or two ago. I

It's from this Zen master named Henry Schuckman. He's not from the East though. He's from the UK. And I absolutely love his way of speaking. Like he has such a serene, really peaceful voice that for me works really well for getting into a meditative state. And yeah,

With the way you can do it as little as 10 minutes a day. So that's really great for if you're like me, they're really busy. Even 10 minutes a day has a huge impact on your ability to be more present, to be less reactive, you know, with your loved ones, not giving into strong emotions, you know, maybe if you get angry or stressed out and in general, just to live a more present, mindful life.

So I wanted to share just a very short clip from Henry Strickman, just so you can hear his voice, how he speaks. And if it appeals to you, then you might want to download the way in the show notes. I'll share a link that gives you 30 free meditations on his app. I don't get any benefit from this. It's just because I really want you to try it. And if you enjoy it to get some benefit out of it, like I said, I use it myself every day. I decided to become a paid subscriber on it. So it's a tool that I can't recommend enough.

foundational function of meditation for most of us is going to be just in getting more present, more grounded, more centered and less stressed. It's a great intervention for nervous system regulation. And you know the whole modern mindfulness exponential spread of meditation as a practice has been centered around that stress reduction.

And the two other apps I was going to recommend, there's one that I was using for many years called Waking Up. And I'm sure I still right now I've gotten really into the way, but I'm sure I'll come back to it sometimes. And it's called Waking Up, which is from another really fantastic philosopher, podcaster and meditator named Sam Harris. And the final one is Insight Timer.

Now, if you're not, if you're wanting like a completely free resource, Insight Timer is really great because it has tons and tons of different free meditations available to you. There's a premium too if you want any more. There's courses. There's so much more. I basically just use the timer function on it. If I just want to have, you know, a 10 minute or 20 minute meditations session without anyone guiding, it has a really nice timer for that. So check out those three apps. They're all free to get started and we can link them in the show notes.

And just for us to wrap up today, I wanted to come to what for me watching this TED talk, what I believe was the most important takeaway. And it's what she was saying in one of the first clips that we watched that

stepping more into the right hemisphere of our brain allows us all to be more connected and this really is our purpose here at real life english of course we want to help you to become a confident natural english speaker and really happy to hear from some of you guys that we're helping you to do that but beyond that ultimately we believe that english is this vehicle that allows you to connect with the world and ultimately that allows you to tap into global consciousness

Now, if you've never heard this term global consciousness before, I asked ChatGPT for a definition. So let's check that out. So it says that global consciousness refers to an awareness and understanding that we are all connected as part of a shared human experience on one planet. It involves recognizing that our actions affect others across the world and that we have a collective responsibility to care for each other and the earth. So

That's exactly what Eckhart Tolle, what Jill Boldt, what they were getting at, right? Is this shared responsibility that we have to live with each other, to treat each other like family, even if we're from another part of the world, even if we have very different beliefs in the end, we all have this shared humanity, right?

And as we say at the end of every podcast, no matter what divides us, that which unites us is far greater. So this just basically means the things that divide us, like our race, our gender, our

sexual orientation, our political beliefs, even our religion, all those things, they're not nearly as important as what connects us, the things that make us all the same, which is, again, this shared humanity. And if more of us can start recognizing that, we're going to be able to make the world, as Jill Bolt said in that kind of emotional last clip we watched, we'll be able to

care for each other more to give each other more love and ultimately to make the world a better place where hopefully we don't have so much conflict so much hate so much um

you know, political discord and war and killing people and so on and more of the positive things of us working together to really make the world a beautiful place. So that said, I hope that you found today's podcast helpful. I really enjoyed getting to talk to you guys about some of these things because they're near and dear to my heart.

And I hope that you'll check out the whole podcast from Joe Bolt, some of Eckhart Tolle's work. He has a lot of really great books and interviews that you can check out. We can link some of those in the show notes and some of the meditation apps. And remember, I'll say it once again, that no matter what divides us, that which unites us is far greater. Aww yeah!