At least once in our lifetime, we all are faced with life-defining challenges or moments. This is commonly referred to as a mid-life crisis, only that it can occur at any time in our lifetime. We have selected the bestselling self-help books that touch on various stages or forms of life challenges and how to deal with them. 

Eat, Pray, Love 

In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert is faced with an early midlife crisis that confronts all aspects of her life. Faced with the reality of her divorce, she feels confusion and regret. Nothing is as it were — and things will never be the same. 

As the waves of depression hit, Gilbert takes a drastic step to change her life. She goes on a journey of finding herself and her true purpose, leaving behind all her adult attachments. The product of this soul-searching journey is Eat, Pray, Love, and in the title, she describes the three stages of self-discovery. 

In each stage, she visited a city that culturally represented one ideal. Rome was the city for “Eat”, which stood for the pleasure ideal. Rome for Gilbert was a place for studying the art of pleasure while gaining a healthy weight. In India, Gilbert explored the “Pray” aspect: the art of devotion and spiritual exploration under the guidance of a native guru. In Bali, she tried to examine the balance between pleasure and spiritual fulfillment — and, unexpectedly, that’s where she found “Love” in its purest form.

Higher 

Charles Hanna in Higher shows us how he overcame his mid-life crisis. Even though everything seemed to go on perfectly fine – a stable family and booming business – he was dealing with self-doubt and battling addiction. These things were eating him up quietly, not soothed or pushed out by his seemingly good life in the slightest. He got clarity on how to improve things for himself only after he hit his lowest — but he got it alright, and that’s what the book is about.

Hanna shows through his personal experience how he faced and conquered his demons by becoming the best version of himself. Higher is split into three parts: Power, Perspective, and Purpose. Within the three, Hanna guides readers on to how to live better and get happier and better through various daily activities and aspirations. 

Regardless of your inclinations (religious or not), Higher will be a valuable addition to your life. With Hanna’s captivating tone of writing and intriguing insights, Higher is relatable to just about anyone. 

How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed 

This book is Theo Pauline Nestor’s memoir of her divorce journey. How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed is divided into three parts that would speak to any woman going through the trials of divorce, separation, and loss. Nestor’s engaging tone and deeply truthful and intimate language make this book stand apart from other self-help books within the niche. 

The first part, titled Shock and Denial, touches on her family history with divorce. How both her mother and grandmother had been divorced, which created an innate fear of marriage for her when she was growing up. After finding love and being married for twelve years, she was optimistic about marriage. However, with the discovery of her husband’s gambling addiction, the union came to an abrupt end. Shock and Denial is about her initial response to this unexpected turn in her life; a life, in which she’s suddenly alone and miserable and forced to cope with the economical and social realities of being a single mother.

In the second part, Adjustment, Nestor confronts her new life and looks for the best way possible to handle the reality she now lives in. She turns to self-help books for divorcees for inspiration and is unhappy with them.  

In the final part, Acceptance, Nestor accepts her reality. She gives love another chance when she reunites with her old high-school boyfriend. This affair makes her feel deserving of love again — she gets better, moves to a new house, and starts living the rest of her new life.

What Color Is Your Parachute

Richard N. Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute is a manual for career people at any stage in their life. Although written for workers in the United States, the teachings and tips in this book can be applied universally. This book covers all the basics for those who are at the start of their career: there are sections on resume, interviews, salary negotiation, career switch, handling challenges, and a little on how to start a business.

Bolles’s aim with this book is to help you find out how you want to be perceived professionally — and build that image up. He explains what to expect from different recruitment styles and how to handle pressure in and out of work. Also, it contains an appendix called “the orange pages”, with resources on choosing a career counselor. 

The Year of Magical Thinking 

An evocative book by Joan Didion that attempts to make sense of her grief through writing. The Year of Magical Thinking sums up the sad year in Didion’s life where all the pillars that held her life started to crumble around her. 

It started with the terminal illness of her adopted daughter, discovered a few days before Christmas, that led to her induced coma. Then, came the unexpected death of her husband a day before New Year’s Eve after suffering fatal coronary heart disease. In an instant, her partner of more than forty years was no more, while her daughter was still unconscious.

Didion comes into a new awareness of the intensity of grief. She now sees it as a state of temporary madness or mental illness. She points out the way the grief was spilled out via her irrational behavior. She rejects the assumption that grief is about intense sadness but accepts it as a state of illogical denial. 

In light of her new reality, Didion must adapt to living in a new way — all while her entire identity is tied to her relationship with her husband and daughter. She is, by a large part, defined by them. This book shows that grief can be — and oftentimes, is — mourning for the loss of identity.