Life Reimagined the Science Art and Opportunity of Midlife

This insightful book makes a compelling case for the notion that the best is yet to come

Many of the states arroyo midlife with trepidation because we're socialized to expect it volition exist characterized by decline and despair. Juggling demanding yet stagnating careers with the needs of aging parents and not-yet-fully-launched children sounds tough.

Adjusting to physical limitations and the loss of mental acuity is another less-than-jolly prospect. And wondering, forth with Peggy Lee, "Is That All There Is?" — the psychological root of the dreaded midlife crisis — makes united states of america worry that we'll spend our forties, fifties, and sixties feeling despondent and obsolete.

Only in that location's another manner, as NPR correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty demonstrates in her inspiring and perceptive Life Reimagined: The Science, Art and Opportunity of Midlife. Utilizing scientific findings in areas such equally neuroscience, psychology, and biology, and leavening information technology with her own life experience, Bradley Hagerty crafts a volume that is role insightful assay, office memoir, and all-around engaging and relatable.

From the research and case studies included in the book, it seems midlife has gotten a bum rap. Bradley Hagerty notes, "Researchers today who have examined people beyond their life spans, peered inside their brains, uncoiled their hopes and fears, and observed how they deal with beloved and alienation, trauma and death, good and evil, say that midlife is about renewal, not crisis."

And she makes a compelling case that our choices — to seek novel experiences, to stay active, to invest in enriching relationships — can transform the centre years into vibrant ones, and besides help us move forward into quondam age with a greater sense of possibility and purpose.

Bradley Hagerty identifies three helpful themes for navigating the middle years. The first is appoint with verve — which, she makes clear, isn't easy. "Of course it takes work to inject zest and vulnerability into your marriage; it takes backbone to reappraise your career for non just income simply besides significant; it takes try to sharpen your aging encephalon." But if focusing on the important over the urgent demands intention and energy, information technology also "dramatically ups the odds that your life will be rich to your final jiff."

The second theme, choose purpose over happiness, also pays dividends over fourth dimension. Pursuing long-term objectives like raising great kids or training for a marathon may non result in a jolt of joy in every moment. But working toward these goals gives you the feeling that what yous're doing matters in a big way.

The terminal theme is your thinking is your experience. "I am not arguing that whistling a happy melody volition make you lot healthy, wealthy and wise," Bradley Hagerty says, but "your approach to triumphs and defeats, joy and pain and losses, the stuff no ane escapes…volition absolutely color how much yous savour the trip."

Bradley Hagerty's own journey is by turns instructive, poignant, and funny as she puts the information she's discovering into practice. In the grade of the chronological narrative, which covers a 14-month period in Bradley Hagerty'due south mid-fifties, she trains for a loftier-intensity senior bicycle race to stretch her physical and mental limits. She details the coming together and moving apart of a core group of friends she'd assumed would exist in her life forever. She and husband Devin infuse novelty — a spark for long-term romance — into their relationship past taking their outset RV vacation.

It's Devin Hagerty who points out to his wife that while society wants a quick set for the challenges of aging, "You're saying: the solution is from the inside." Indeed — and fortunately, midlife provides abundant opportunities to modify our thinking and live a more than dynamic life. Bradley Hagerty reminds us, "Second and third chances routinely nowadays themselves if y'all keep your eyes open."

A few years before Bradley Hagerty began this book, she considered succumbing to midlife malaise herself. Her beloved mother, withal vibrant in her nineties, had suffered a stroke, and Bradley Hagerty was dealing with a vocal-cord trouble that caused chronic pain and played havoc with her on-air presence.

But, as she explains on her website, she decided instead to "tackle this problem like a story on deadline: Call the experts, find the anecdotal stories illustrating the big ideas, and explain how to chart a path to an exceptional midlife." To our not bad delight and do good, Bradley Hagerty takes us forth for the ride.

Paula Novash writes articles, web re-create, and literary nonfiction on topics ranging from It to sushi and edits books, manufactures, and journals in fields that include medicine, linguistics, philanthropy, and neuroscience.

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Source: http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/bookreview/life-reimagined-the-science-art-and-opportunity-of-midlife

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