The happiness curve : why life turns around in middle age / Jonathan Rauch.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book will change your life by showing you how life changes. Why does happiness get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump even when you're successful? Where does this malaise come from? And, most importantly, will it ever end? 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 well-documented U-shaped trajectory, a happiness curve, declining from the optimism of youth into what's often a long, low trough in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s. This isn't a midlife crisis, though. Rauch reveals that this downturn is instead a natural stage of life - and an essential one. By shifting priorities away from competition and toward compassion, you can equip yourself with new tools of wisdom and gratitude to head positively into your later years.