First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A new story about anxiety

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The idea for a book about anxiety came to Wilson a couple of years ago when she was on a panel at the Melbourne writers’ festival: “I was talking about sugar but all the questions were about anxiety. People are desperate to have a deep and proper and real conversation about anxiety.” I applaud her bravery and honesty as some aspects of the book are very hard to read. Evisceratingly honest, one might say. Some of her ideas, and approaches and themes about anxiety's manifestations and how to manage and even live with it are excellent and I think will be (largely) helpful to many readers. Perhaps it’s not about striving to free ourselves from anxiety, it’s learning to stop ourselves from fleeing from it: learning to stop ourselves from distractions and constantly searching outside of ourselves on a never-ending quest for something to fulfil us or make our restlessness go away. Perhaps, instead, we should just sit still, resist the urge to flee, and listen. Only then can we get closer to ourselves. You can also get it on Kindle hereand other ebooks hereand for Audio (I read the book myself), you can buy it here.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful - Penguin Books UK

The book teaches us how to handle life and difficult situations, which I think can go beyond anxiety, but it can be a difficult read at times. If you decide to read this, do so with an open mind. There is good advice and some not-so-good advice, so take some of Wilson’s words with a pinch of salt and if you don’t feel like it’s for you put it down and move onto the next read. Sarah Wilson—bestselling author and entrepreneur, intrepid solver of problems and investigator of how to live a better life—has helped over 1.2 million people across the world to quit sugar. She has also been an anxiety sufferer her whole life. This is the author’s honest and vibrant account of her struggle with anxiety and what she has done to cope or manage it throughout her life. I consider it part-memoir and part self-help book. Gabrielle Bernstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of May Cause Miracles Here’s where you find all the science and source referencesThe name dropping was so frustrating. Oprah, Brene Brown, Gabrielle Bernstein etc get to have their names in the book, but then she refers to "some guy" who uses the analogy of walking on custard. His name is Neil Hughes, he has a lovely TED talk and he wrote a book called "Walking on Custard and the meaning of life: a Guide for Anxious Humans". Surely she could have included that? Near the beginning of the book, Wilson states that this isn’t a self-help book, it’s more an account of her experiences with anxiety. But I would disagree. I found so many tips in here and just being able to relate and agree with her about so many things provided some help in itself. An exploration of the chasm between the public persona of a high-functioning media personality and her private struggle with ever-lurking, crippling anxiety. You’ll never read a more searingly honest account of mental illness than this.” There was also a lot of things I struggled with in terms of the structuring of the book itself. Don't get me wrong I loved that this listed things in numbers, counting things is such an anxious perk of mine and the ironic comments on the side or generic side notes were really great. But there were a reasonable number of grammatical discrepancies, changes in tense.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through

Full of great, solidly researched, personal and genuinely useful tips for the anxious mind … I loved this book. Matt Haig Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Misleading - lots of timeline errors... she has a car, is a nomad, doesn't drive, drives a car, doesn't own anything.

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Inconsistencies in timelines such as (and I'm paraphrasing) 'I haven't owned a car in 5 years' to 'I spent years researching what car to buy and I bought the most environmentally sound car in the world', 'I live in the city' to 'I am a nomad and have lived in 7 different places in the last year'. Huh? I'm lost. Other than the ethical problems above I enjoyed some of the reading. She mentions some techniques and ways of thinking that are really helpful. Again, a resource list would have been wonderful for people who want to know more about it. What I didn't enjoy was her writing style and inserting random stories about herself or 'some friend' who did this or that. It felt disjointed and again, more memoir-like than really wanting to assist people with their anxiety or telling 'a new story'. For me it was frustrating to read and took away from the points she did make very well.

first, we make the beast beautiful - Pan Macmillan AU first, we make the beast beautiful - Pan Macmillan AU

The bit about going to Thai massage place over the luxurious day spa as it was more 'authentic' to listen to junkies fighting outside. Cringe. This journey is what I do now. I bump along, in fits and starts, on a perpetual path to finding better ways for me and my mate, Anxiety, to get around. It's everything I do. This was free through my library and listened by Bolinda Borrow Box, my libraries recommended listening app.Sarah pulls at the thread of accepted definitions of anxiety, and unravels the notion that it is a difficult, dangerous disease that must be medicated into submission. Ultimately, she re-frames anxiety as a spiritual quest rather than a burdensome affliction, a state of yearning that will lead us closer to what really matters. I feel blessed to have encountered such a life-changing book on the library shelves by chance and would recommend this book to everyone going through similar struggles of anxiety, indecisiveness and perfectionism. It took almost two years to write this book. During this time I flitted between nine countries and moved house seven times. Anxiety spirals delayed the process regularly. Anxiety is a very lonely condition but I feel like there’s a yearning out there to connect over it,” Wilson says.

First, We Make The Beast Beautiful | Whitcoulls First, We Make The Beast Beautiful | Whitcoulls

It’s written in a very conversational style, the structure is a tad chaotic and repeatedly jumps around to different things but that does appeal to me - as my brain is very much like this! It means that I never got bored. She covers triggers and treatments, as well as her own personal anecdotes and little quotes and tidbits from fellow anxiety sufferers. On the positive side I loved the name and the concept of 'making the beast beautiful'. A lot of research and therapeutic approaches like positive psychology support this idea of moving from 'diagnosis' to 'compassion and acceptance'. I've found a softening towards myself and in my clients when using this approach. Her perspective, whilst absolutely valid, feels very privileged. Whilst I’m sure many will resonate with her story, to me her life and experiences feel out of touch. I can’t be impulsive like in the book. I can’t just take a month out and find a retreat or sanctuary to hide away in, I don’t have the financial freedoms to leg it. Sarah blogs in an intimate fashion - on philosophy, anxiety, minimalism and anti-consumerism - at sarahwilson.com, lives in Sydney, Australia, rides a bike everywhere, is a compulsive hiker and is eternally curious. But dear lord it is badly written. I understand that the meandering structure is probably intended to mirror her journey to some extent, but it is sometimes a real struggle to follow her threads, internally inconsistent, has a severe over use of !!!!! and Sentences like 'But still.' or 'Do you understand where I am coming from?'One of the dear, dear things about getting older, is that it does eventually dawn on you that there is no guidebook. One day it suddenly emerges: No one bloody gets it! None of us knows what we're doing. pg 5, ebook Despite my second point, one thing is clear: this book needed to be two. A more scientific approach and the second being a memoir. The cross between the two was hard to follow. Everyday anxiety is on the increase and the things that are part of modern life drive it. We are in a permanent state of frenetic, highly agitated states of being; not getting enough sleep, rushing, too much work, not enough balance – stressful conditions. We’re emulating anxious conditions in our everyday living. It’s in how we applaud A-type behaviour.” I also related strongly to a quote on 276, "I generally find that anxious people spend a lot of their lives trying to have fun doing stuff other people find enjoyable." This is another thing that I am a firm follower in, and reading it will hopefully make me choose my own plans, no matter how small they are. Despite being full of enough disclaimers and references to cover everyone involved legally, I think this is still a pretty risky read. Wilson’s premise of “my many significant mental health diagnoses all just boil down to anxiety!”, never really defining what “anxiety” is, claiming that maladaptive coping strategies are actually okay (my bulimia helps me manage my anxiety!) and that people are over medicated and should not take medication (except for when they need to, but then stop, and then start again when inevitably have a mental health flare up) is convoluted and misguided at best, and damaging at worst.