02 Emotional Mastery VOCAB

Okay, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for “Emotional Mastery.” Let’s get started.

A few of the words I used in the main speech, the main article. First let’s talk about posture. Posture. So posture means the position of your body, it’s how you stand or sit. So we talk about good posture, for example. Good posture means your shoulders are back. Your back is straight, your chin is up. That’s what we usually call good posture.

And bad posture would mean, you know again, you’re leaning forward. Your shoulders are forward. Your back is not straight. So again, posture just means the position of your body, how you position your body. How you hold your body, that’s posture.

Another word I used was grin. A grin can be a noun, it’s a thing. Or it can be a verb, it’s something you do. So to grin means to smile, but to smile in a big way. When you grin, you’re not using a small smile. You’re using a very, very big smile. Again, it’s also a noun so if you have a very big smile on your face, we say that is a grin. He has a big grin.  You could use both, I guess.  You could say he is grinning a big grin.  Okay, so grin again is a large smile or the act of doing a large smile.

Another phrase I used was “tends to be.” He tends to be an angry person. Tends to be means usually is. So he usually is an angry person. He tends to be an angry person. So it’s something that usually happens, usually is true, mostly is true. But not always, not always. So I could say, Tomoe tends to be happy. It means she usually is happy.

It’s her normal thing to do or normal thing to feel. But not always, sometimes she’s not happy. So tends to be, usually is or often is or mostly is.

Okay, another word I used was shifting. Shifting your body and the verb is to shift. To shift your body means to move it. It really means kind of to change its position. A shift is a change of position. So if I have my head down and then I shift it, then maybe I move it to a different position. Now it’s up. I shifted from down to up. We use this in other areas, not just body. You can use it for driving, for example. When you’re driving you can shift from first gear to second gear. Or reverse, you’re going backwards, then you stop, you shift the car and you change and you go forward. So again, you’re changing the gear’s position. Okay, so shift is a change in position.

I used the word shallow, shallow breath or shallow breathing. And I also used the word deep, deep breathing or a deep breath. So they’re opposites, of course. Deep, we also use this with water, for example. Deep water means water that goes down very far.

Shallow water means water that’s not very deep, right? It’s the opposite, water that does not go down far. So shallow breathing is the same idea. It means breathing that is very small, that doesn’t go down into your body very much. So…that’s shallow breathing, right? It’s small little breaths. The air does not go down deep into the body. That is shallow breath or shallow breathing. And the opposite is deep. Deep breathing is…right, the air goes down into my body very far, very deeply. But shallow…does not go deeply. Okay, so we use this a lot with breathing. Shallow breathing and deep breathing, they’re opposites.

Another word I used is force, to force, using it as a verb, an action. To force something or to force yourself to do something. It’s a very common phrase.  The whole thing again, to force yourself to do something. For example, force yourself to smile. So force means to try hard. It has an idea that you don’t want to do it but you do it anyway. You make yourself do something difficult. You make yourself do something maybe you don’t want to do. So you use effort. You use your energy. You use your power to do something. So when you force something it’s the opposite of really relaxed. It’s the opposite of doing it effortlessly. So force yourself to smile means use your energy.

Make yourself smile, even if you don’t want to. Use energy. Force it. Try hard to smile. So that’s to force yourself to do something.

Another word I used is depressed or depression. So depression is the noun, depressed is the feeling, it’s an adjective. Like I feel depressed, it’s how you feel. So depressed means very, very sad. Feeling very, very sad and bad about yourself, about your life, about everything. So if you say “I’m sad,” usually that’s more specific, you have a reason. I’m sad about something. I’m sad because I lost my job. But if you’re depressed, it’s a very more general kind of feeling. You’re depressed about everything usually. “I’m depressed because I lost my job and I have no money and I don’t have a girlfriend,” many reasons. Depression is deeper than just sadness.

So again, to be depressed, you say “I am depressed” or “I have depression.” This is a general kind of rule in English. It’s not always, but generally we say “I have a noun…a thing.” I have depression. Not I have depressed. Say, I have depression. But if you’re talking about an adjective, then you use “am”. I am depressed. They mean basically the same thing. I have depression means I have the feeling of being depressed. I am depressed is more common. It just means I feel very, very, very sad.

Okay, well that is the end of the vocabulary lesson for “Emotional Mastery.” Listen to it a couple of times. In general the vocabulary lessons are the least important lesson. So if you listen to them a few times, if they’re boring, if you understand them all, it’s fine, you can skip the vocabulary.  I want you to focus mostly on the main article, the main speech and on the mini‑story. Those are the two most important lessons. The

vocabulary gives you a quick little lesson about some of the words and phrases. Listen to it a few times until you know these words, but once you know the words focus on the main story, the main article and on the mini‑story.

Okay, I will see you in the next lesson.