I recently received a couple of challenging emails asking different versions of the same question. What if I’m experiencing the classic symptoms of midlife malaise…but I’m in my 20s or 60s rather than my 40s? What’s that about? Here’s M: Points you’ve covered, I feel, directly apply to the way I feel on a regular […]
Talking about The Happiness Curve, I often get asked about menopause. It hits in midlife and obviously has major physical and emotional effects. Here’s an email I received recently from a woman I’ll call H: I have recently read your amazing book and wanted to thank you. I have been struggling for a number of […]
Take a couple of minutes to read a splendid little essay in the New York Times by Wajahat Ali, about “A Midlife Crisis in the Age of Trump.” Wajahat does a good job summarizing a major accelerant of a midlife feedback loop: the seemingly overwhelming feeling that time is running out. It’s not true, of […]
I’m often asked whether just knowing about midlife slump can ameliorate it. The answer is yes. Not eliminate it, mind you. For those who experience it, age-related dissatisfaction is a stage in our developmental process which, like adolescence or any other developmental stage, serves a purpose and needs to unfold. But the natural slump is […]
The New York Times has an article by contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl that beautifully expresses some of the equilibrating changes that come in late adulthood. The piece is framed as “The Gift of Menopause”— no doubt a truthful reflection of the author’s subjective experience, but menopause probably has less to do with it than […]