Happiness curve: identify when the saddest phase of your life will be

Happiness can be defined as the state of mind most sought by everyone during life, although it is not that easy to conquer.

Surprisingly, scientific research has indicated that it is possible to determine when people are having a happy time and what is the saddest time in their lives.

This study was named “Happiness Curve” and revealed that the period of people's greatest sadness it is related to questioning and breaking expectations of adult life.

Understand how and why this moment is the right age to happen!

When does the Happiness Curve happen?

The saddest phase of the “happiness curve” happens when you are approaching your 40s. According to a survey carried out in 2020 by the United States National Office of Economic Research, it is at this age that people reach the peak of feelings of sadness and frustration.

Then there is a positive change followed by new perspectives on life. Already at age 50, it was identified that people have more feelings of gratitude.

For researchers David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, the analyzes carried out on different people showed a standard U-shaped curve. This U-shaped representation makes it easier to understand how happiness and satisfactionchange throughout life.

At the same time, the aging process begins to show itself with more force, indicating a relationship with time that also frightens many people.

The concept became a book

The theme of the happiness curve is so recurrent that it spawned the book The Happiness Curve (The Happiness Curve) by Jonathan Rauch.

The author was facing long periods of sadness at the age of 40, even though he knew that many aspects of his life were well underway. He had a stable relationship, had no health problems and was in good financial condition.

However, Rauch woke up daily disappointed and feeling like a failure. As time went by and he reached the age of 50, he began to have a different understanding of life. positive and had other perceptions to understand the ups and downs that are part of the trajectory human.

In summary, people grow up idealizing goals and this act can lead to frustration when goals are not achieved.

Thus, life ends up becoming a roller coaster of feelings as we get older. The happiness curve represents the life we ​​idealize and helps to understand the moments of crisis that come with increasing age.