Just In: The 21 Best Pieces Of Advice We Learned From The mbg Podcast This Year

It'd be a giant understatement to say it's been a wild year. During all the uncertainty that plagued 2020, perhaps you, too, turned to some source of comfort: a tried-and-true skin care routine, nature walk, or journaling practice. For us? We couldn't have trudged through it without the help of our experts on the mindbodygreen podcast.

We've picked their brains on metabolic health; we've turned to them to discuss privilege and the importance of making yourself uncomfortable; we've tapped them on the profound power of social connections (even virtual!); we've held meditation sessions in real time; and so much more. It's these conversations that have helped us navigate unprecedented 2020 with curiosity, empathy, and, of course, some hard-hitting science. 

"What COVID is doing is saying all those slow-burning chronic diseases that affect you over time? With me, it can kill you tomorrow." —David Katz, M.D., preventive medicine specialist

"If we go back to eating and living the way our DNA expects—a much more nutrient-dense diet, more social bonding, and more physical activity—then we'll have strong, vigorous bodies into our 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We don't have to have a body that breaks down at age 40." —Terry Wahls, M.D., functional medicine doctor

"You can tell by the way someone is breathing where they're holding their stress." —Gail Parker, Ph.D., C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, psychologist and certified yoga teacher 

“There is absolutely no such thing as a gene for disease. If we know our genes we know not how we're going to die—we know how we're going to live.” —Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., founder of Big Bold Health and the "father of functional medicine"

"If you're doing all the right things and failing to lose weight, you have to look at hormones." —Kyrin Dunston, M.D., board-certified OB/GYN and functional medicine specialist

"The most important thing people can do is to start breathing slowly and start breathing less." —James Nestor, New York Times bestselling author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

"You're going to eat every day, so why not pack in the foods that will give you a better brain function?" —Uma Naidoo, M.D., board-certified psychiatrist, professional chef, and author of This Is Your Brain on Food

"Women who have children later on in life are up to two times more likely to have a longer life span." —Cleopatra Kamperveen, Ph.D., fertility and pregnancy specialist

"The biggest mistake when dealing with a narcissist is to want to keep them accountable." —Perpetua Neo, DClinPsy, clinical psychologist

"Compassion without empathy is just performative. We need to have both." —Rick Hanson, Ph.D., psychologist and New York Times bestselling author. 

"Individuals who go to church are less likely to get sick, and there's even evidence for the power of prayer. There's a whole science to prayer. It's very powerful." —Anna Yusim, M.D., board-certified psychiatrist and lecturer at Yale Medical School

"There's no medication that totally gets rid of the part you play in your own health." —Mitzi Joi Williams, M.D., board-certified neurologist and fellowship-trained MS specialist. 

"Push your skin, and then let it recover. It's the same as when you go to the gym." —Whitney Bowe, M.D., board-certified dermatologist

"We see sacrifice as a loss, and it's not. There's gain in sacrifices if we just see further down the road." —Matthew McConaughey, Academy Award–winning actor, producer, and author of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling Greenlights

"There's a big difference between trying to get love and actually sharing love. We can't share love if we don't have love to share." —Margaret Paul, Ph.D., relationship expert

"The fountain of youth is found in your fridge—that's where you must start." —Eric Adams, Brooklyn borough president and author of Healthy at Last

"Alzheimer's disease is not a disease of old age. Alzheimer's disease starts with negative changes in the brain years, if not decades, prior to clinical symptoms." —Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D., neuroscientist, nutritionist, and associate director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College

"If you celebrate your anxiety, you aren't denying it—you're bringing it into your conscious awareness and using neuroplasticity to your advantage." —Caroline Leaf, Ph.D., communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist

"Don't be so quick to fix everything. Growing a child is not an emergency. You're in it for the long run, and 'fixing' implies there's something wrong." —Stephen Cowan, M.D., holistic pediatrician

"An artificially positive mind can be a turbulent mind, especially if you're feeling stressed." —Deepak Chopra, M.D., spiritual icon and bestselling author

"Judgment is your protection mechanism so you don't have to engage with the unknown." —Shaman Durek, sixth-generation shaman and author of Spirit Hacking

Listen to Durek's full episode here.