9 Habits That Will Change Your Life: The Best Expert Advice I’m Using This Year

What It Covers

Mel Robbins presents the nine most impactful moments from 106 episodes in 2025, featuring expert advice from Jay Shetty, Danielle Bayard Jackson, Dr. Dawn Musalem, Vanessa Marin, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright, Dr. Gabor Maté, and Bryan Stevenson on relationships, health, and personal growth.

Key Questions Answered

• •Releasing the Past: Jay Shetty explains that feeling stuck stems from holding onto past identities rather than not knowing what to do next. Momentum comes from releasing what no longer serves you, not from knowing your destination. People remain trapped by clinging to memories, relationships, or versions of themselves that have already moved on in reality.
• •Friendship Turnover: Research shows men and women replace half their friends every seven years through natural pruning as life circumstances change. Forty percent of adults report not having a best friend. Rather than seeking one person to fulfill all needs, satisfaction can come from a collective network where different friends provide different forms of support and connection.
• •Cancer-Fighting Foods: Dr. Dawn Musalem identifies five specific foods that fight cancer: berries reduce breast cancer risk by twenty-five percent with two servings weekly, purple sweet potatoes contain 150 percent more anthocyanins than berries, cruciferous vegetables convert estrogen to less proliferative forms, beans provide class one evidence for reducing pancreatic cancer mortality, and edamame reduces breast cancer recurrence by twenty-five percent.
• •Sex Timing Strategy: Licensed sex therapist Vanessa Marin reveals that scheduling sex earlier in the evening rather than at bedtime increases success because energy levels are higher. Dating itself was always scheduled sex. Three daily practices improve intimacy: expressing gratitude, maintaining six-second kisses and twenty to thirty-second hugs to release oxytocin, and making consistent eye contact with partners.
• •Women's Exercise Physiology: Dr. Stacy Sims demonstrates that fasted training triggers muscle breakdown in women because the hypothalamus perceives starvation and catabolizes muscle tissue for fuel. Women need small amounts of food before exercise—protein coffee, yogurt, or half a banana—to signal the brain that adequate fuel exists, preventing the body from breaking down muscle mass during workouts.