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I also would have liked to have a little bit more information about the animal studies he notes, both the ape study and the studies about other species experiencing an optimism bias. How do we know animals experience an optimism bias? Do apes experience the happiness curve for the same reasons that humans do? It is about the dawn of 'encore adulthood,' a whole new stage of adult development which is already starting to reshape the way we think about retirement,education, and human potential." Anders Hansen is a highly regarded scientific communicator who, in this book, seeks the keys to our well-being through human evolution. It is both an encouraging and a comforting message which describes how our brains are wired for survival, rather than constant well-being. Thomas Perlmann, Professor of Molecular Developmental Biology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden and Member of the Nobel Assembly Dr Anders explained: “What you have to understand about the brain is that its primary goal is not to make us smart or to make us creative, it’s to take us to tomorrow alive! The Happiness Cure offers a radical new way to think about fulfilment. Blending neuroscientific research and empirical breakthroughs with stories of ordinary individuals, leading psychiatrist and viral TedX speaker Dr Anders Hansen reveals that by adopting an evolutionary take on life, we can re-set our perspective on happiness to find longer-term meaning and lasting contentment.
An interesting take on how, in what should be the prime time of success in life, is also seen as the most unhappy time of life. People will joke about the "mid-life crisis" when people hit 40 and "Middle Age," but according to Rauch, there is something more than jokes about red sports cars. Through personal observation, personal accounts and scientific study, he documents that when surveyed, many people will experience times of less happiness in their 40s than either in their 30s or 50s. For many of those surveyed, they have everything going for them as far as professional and personal achievements, but yet, there is some sort of either discontentment or feeling in inadequacy that will impact people. Hence, on the many charts documenting levels of happiness vs. age, the numbers are lower in the 40s...but then seem to go up once a person hits the 50s.The transition takes years, though, and the shift in values leads to a certain restlessness and dissatisfaction with life, even when there isn't a good reason for it. A friend recommended this book to me because it helped him understand the restlessness he was experiencing in his life, and it's definitely illuminating. It's helpful to know that it happens, and that people do feel better once it's mostly done. This isn’t a midlife crisis, though. Rauch reveals that this slump is instead a natural stage of life—and an essential one. By shifting priorities away from competition and toward compassion, it equips you with new tools for wisdom and gratitude to win the third period of life. The last two chapters were a bit more self-helpy, and I found they dragged a little bit, but I think this was because the things he suggests to get through the slump seemed pretty obvious to me, probably because I've already looked into/been implementing a lot of those things because I have a lifelong battle with waxing and waning depression & anxiety (don't go it alone - share how you are feeling with friends/counsellor, try something new, use meditation and mindfulness techniques etc.) The last two chapters also talked about the beginnings of a movement to redefine what older age looks like (the 50s and 60s) similar to how adolescence as a distinct life phase had to be defined with the rise of the industrial revolution. That was somewhat interesting. Wisdom, he says, is balanced, reflective, active -- "the happiness curve is a social adaptation, a slow-motion reboot of our emotional software to repurpose us for a different role in society."
This is a tedious book. Jonathan Rauch is a competent journalist, and does well summarizing the work of scientist and other thinkers about happiness. However, he attempts to make his own contribution to the field by conducting a survey and using the experience of his correspondents and his own life story to illustrate the scientific findings. There are dome nuggets of interesting material here, but the reader is mining low-grade ore. His take is that the brain hasn't caught up to the rapid changes in human history and therefore responds as if we still lived as hunter-gatherers. There were certain aspects of this explanation that felt like a reach, but even leaving this out, the book makes for a very fascinating read. In 2019, he hosted the Swedish television show ‘Your Brain’, which featured guest experts including Steven Pinker, Robert Sapolsky, Dr Susan Greenfield, and Richard Dawkins.Well, the same can be said of midlife, as it turns out. Jonathan Rauch's book, "The Happiness Curve" starts off by diving into a huge pile of research: dozens of research teams have seen this u-shaped curve in self-reported life satisfaction scores. We start off VERY happy in life and our satisfaction gradually decreases at mid-life, and then begins to increase again after this midlife trough. It's not just cultural -- it's found across multiple cultures and samples across decades. And, it's not just humans -- researchers working with primates around the world, in various settings, have found the same curve in our nearest non-human primate relatives and may be biological. The answer lies in understanding what the happiness curve is really saying, which is this: It is perfectly possible to be very satisfied with your life in middle age, but it is harder.” Hansen explains the possible physiological origins of depression and anxiety, and how these two conditions are actually signs that the brain is functioning as it is meant to. He maintains a good balance between providing plenty of details and still being understandable to the layman. His thoughts and advice regarding things like calming strategies, loneliness and exercise are nothing unique, but he explains them using neuroscience in a very articulate and easy to understand manner. A must read for anyone hoping to understand the human brain' - Dr Anna Lembke, New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation This book presents a captivating journey through the complexities of mental well-being, unveiling the intricate workings of our minds in relation to emotions, anxiety, depression, and the pursuit of happiness. Despite a somewhat misleading title, suggesting a direct route to perpetual joy, the book offers a nuanced exploration of factors influencing our mental states.
The best non-fiction is as easy and rewarding to read as the best fiction, it holds your interest, it focuses on facts in a way that makes it all that much more real, a visual, and maybe emotional experience. This was, for the most part, not a book I ever felt fully engaged in, and while it had some parts that were more compelling, it felt mired down by the way it was told. The nominees for the Swedish 2021 Storytel Awards have been announced. The Storytel Awards have been bestowed since 2007 in Sweden to highlight the best audio books of the year. The awards are granted within six categories: Suspense, Fiction, Non-fiction, Feelgood, YA, and Children’s books. A brilliantly researched book that will transform how you think about happiness. * Thomas Erikson, author of Surrounded by Idiots *The studies on wisdom align nicely with the basic tenets of Buddhism -- which may explain why so many folks are drawn to it in middle age, it provides a structure and community for their changing values and beliefs. There's no association between wisdom and intelligence, "What wise people know about is life." I found this book whilst I was browsing at my local library. It sounded like an interesting read, so I took it home and over the course of a week, I read it. At times, it was a bit too technical for me, but overall, it was an excellent book.
A first glance at this title made me nearly dismiss it because I assumed it was just going to be a long list of things to do to supposedly make you feel happy. On giving it a chance and reading it, however, I discovered it was nothing of the sort. The book was a little slim on 'what-to-do-about-its' because, I think, most people don't quite know what to do about it. I would have enjoyed a little more info on how to make the best marriage/family life throughout your forties. I would have enjoyed examples that weren't mostly wealthier career people. It left out anyone without a traditional career trajectory. Additionally, the end petered out a little bit for me--I could have easily skipped it. We are biological beings, a product of evolution. With a warm heart and a light hand, Anders Hansen explains what this means for our mental well-being Karin Bojs Meanwhile, Anders Hansen’s Brain Blues and Måns Mosesson’s Tim – The Official Biography of Avicii features on the Non-fiction list, and David Sundin’s audiobook The Audiobook That Did Not Want To End – Part 2, from the same universe as The Book That Did Not Want To Be Read, is in the running for the Children’s books’ award.
This is a well-researched work simplifies multiple sources of research, into clearly defined easy ro digest chapters. These are clearly mapped to explain the different factors impacting the individual's need for happiness. You know how people realize later in their life that it's their friendships and relationships with people that really matter and they're more relationship-driven than ambition-driven, and they're glad now that they "see the light" and realize what's truly important in life? And that now they feel so much wiser than those younger people who haven't figured that out yet? It's not that they never figured it out; it's that, biologically, we change so that those things become our priorities later in life. There's some definite psychology involved (younger people who think they don't have very long to live show this shift in priorities as well, and older people who feel like they still have plenty of time don't show it as much), but there's definitely a biological component. And people are not waking up to what's important as much as their bodies are changing what they consider important. Drawing on cutting-edge research, award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch answers all these questions. He shows that from our 20s into our 40s, happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve,” declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s.
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