The author, a psychiatrist, makes the argument that we should, and could, be happier—not all the time, and certainly not always “dialled up to eleven”, but definitely more than we are. This book explains how.

After an introductory couple of chapters about evolutionary psychology (illustrating where our fundamental emotions came from), he tackles the biggest enemies of happiness: anxiety and depression, each in a chapter of their own, before taking on a third beast, loneliness.

By offering reframes and new perspectives (because often we place too much or too little weight on the wrong things, due to an array of dysfunctional cognitive biases), he looks to help us to allow ourselves to feel the things we need to feel, and then continue being, most of the time, happy.

For Dr. Hansen, moderate happiness should be our default condition, punctuated by moments of greater happiness, and also by moments of unhappiness (e.g. anxiety, sadness, etc). He makes the argument that too many people spend a lot of time either wildly oscillating between emotional states, or else digging oneself further into an increasingly overwhelming state (usually: anxiety or depression), that can then be tricky to get out of, especially if trying the wrong way, e.g. by pursing happiness single-mindedly.

He also recommends the usual things that you might expect; exercise, getting good rest, and so forth, but mostly this book is not about that.

The style is very light and educational, clearly written for maximum comprehension, at the expense of precision (there are many small factual errors that do not detract from the actual thrust of the advice).

Bottom line: if you’d like to be happier, this book may help—especially by making it easier to identify why you’re not happy, since the obvious reasons are often not the fundamental reasons.

Click here to check out The Happiness Cure, and increase your happiness!

Another book with “The New Science” in its subtitle, so, is this one a new science?

Yes and no; some findings are new, many are not, what really sets this book apart from many of its genre though is that rather than focusing on fighting aging, it focuses on retaining youth. While this may seem like one and the same thing, there is a substantive difference beyond the ideological, which is: while anti-aging research focuses on what causes people to suffer age-related decline and fights each of those things, Dr. Longo’s research focuses on what is predominant in youthful bodies, cells, DNA, and looks to have more of that. Looking in a slightly different place means finding slightly different things, and knowledge is power indeed.

Dr. Longo bases his research and focus on his “5 pillars of longevity”. We’ll not keep them a mystery; they are:

1. Juventology research
2. Epidemiology
3. Clinical studies
4. Centenarian studies
5. Study of complex systems

The first there (juventology research) may sound like needless jargon, but it is the counterpoint of the field of gerontology, and is otherwise something that didn’t have an established name.

You may wonder why “clinical studies” gets a separate item when the others already include studies; this is because many studies when it comes to aging and related topics are population-based studies, cohort studies, observational studies, or (as is often the case) multiple of the above at once.

Of course, all this discussion of academia is not itself practical information for the reader (unless we happen to work in the field), but it is interesting and does give confidence in the conclusions upon which the practical parts of the book are based.

And what are they? As the title suggests, it’s about diet, and specifically, it’s about Dr. Longo’s “fast-mimicking diet”, which boasts the benefits of intermittent fasting without intermittent fasting. This hinges, of course, on avoiding metabolic overload, which can be achieved with a fairly simple diet governed by the principles outlined in this book, based on the research referenced.

In the category of subjective criticism, there is quite a bit of fluff, much of it self-indulgently autobiographical and very complimentary, but its presence does not take anything away from the excellent content contained in the book.

Bottom line: if you’d like a fresh perspective on regaining/retaining youthfulness, then this is a great book to read.

Click here to check out The Longevity Diet, and stay younger!