Sarah Wilson - First, we make the beast beautiful : a new story about anxiety

praise for first, we make the beast beautiful

Quirky, edgy and brutally frank. first, we make the beast beautiful is an exploration of the chasm between the public persona of a high-functioning media personality and her private struggle with ever-lurking, crippling anxiety. Youll never read a more searingly honest account of mental illness than this.

Hugh Mackay, social researcher and bestselling author of 17 books, including The Good Life and Beyond Belief

Sarahs book is indeed quite extraordinary, illuminating what is at once a nomadic journey, a cri de cur and a compendium of hard-won wisdom flowing from a uniquely talented individual who has experienced a wide spectrum of mental ill health, and from her search for meaning and solutions. One gets the feeling her mind has operated like a vacuum cleaner sucking up all these experiences, experiments and extensive and deep reading and reflection.

This is not just a self-help book, though there are many whiffs of answers contained within its pages. Many are undiscovered gems. Truth, honesty and complexity shine through every page of what has been a lifelong struggle powered by a formidable energy. Sarahs narrative shows why the conventional diagnostic framework doesnt really work. Its a tour de force.

Professor Patrick McGorry AO MD PhD FRCP FRANZCP FAA FASSA, 2010 Australian of the Year

I cant stop thinking about this book. Its for all the people who, like me, love the Sarahs of the world. It will help you understand them and love them more. Sarahs raw account of her mental health issues is at times harrowing and at times uplifting. It will change the way you think about anxiety.

Helen McCabe, journalist and former editor of Australian Womens Weekly

I had some anxiety about whether I would be giving this gem of a book the endorsement it deserves. As a psychiatrist who spends time with my patients exploring meaningful connections and life balance, this book resonated. As a person with anxiety and a family history of mood disorders, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I found the beast indeed to be beautiful.

Dr Mark Cross, consultant psychiatrist, SANE board member and author of Changing Minds

Sarah speaks directly to my heart, articulating her journey in a language that is almost visceral. The words leap from the page and resonate so deeply with me, as they will for anyone who has walked the path of anxiety.

Aurelio Costarella, fashion designer and Lifeline Ambassador

Sarahs story provides great insight into what I see people experiencing every day, and I admire her courage for sharing it with the world. She recognises that the road to wellness is about embracing and living a life aligned to our values.

Dr Jodie Lowinger, clinical psychologist, Sydney Anxiety Clinic For Adults, Children and Adolescents

Sarahs life mission is to help us all feel less lonely in our pain. These pages are filled with authenticity and clear direction for how to return to our spiritual truth.

Gabrielle Bernstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of May Cause Miracles

Thank you Sarah Wilson. This book is a beacon of reality in a sea of avoidance.

Louise Androlia, artist, writer and emotional mentor

about first, we make the beast beautiful

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. Its everything I do.

Sarah Wilson, author and entrepreneur, gravitates to hard problems and intrepidly tries to solve them so she can pass on the hard-earned wisdoms to all who want to make life better.

She applied this formula to quitting sugar. Now, first, we make the beast beautiful sees her apply it to the force in her life thats brought the most pain and become her finest teacher. Anxiety.

Investigating deeply, she pulls at the thread of accepted definitions of anxiety, unravelling the notion that it is a disease that must be medicated into submission. Could anxiety be re-sewn, she asks, into a thing of beauty? A state of grace that will lead her and her fellow sufferers closer to what really matters?

There are many books about coping with anxiety. This one encourages the myriad souls who dance with the condition to live the better life with anxiety.

at once a nomadic journey, a cri de Coeur and a compendium of hard-won wisdom Professor Patrick McGorry AO MD PhD FRCP FRANZCP FAA FASSA, 2010 Australian of the Year

five things to know about this book

contents

THE WORMS WAKING

This is how a human being can change.

There is a worm

addicted to eating grape leaves.

Suddenly, he wakes up,

call it grace, whatever, something

wakes him, and he is no longer a worm.

He is the entire vineyard,

and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,

a growing wisdom and joy

that does not need to devour.

Rumi

The first time I met His Holiness The Dalai Lama, I was invited to ask him one question. He tends to go on and on, his people told me. So one question only.

Of course I fretted. One question.

I was interviewing His Holiness for a magazine column I wrote in which I explored ways to have a better life. The column was one of my smarter orchestrations. Anxiety-related illness had planted me in a spot such that I was too sick to hold down a normal job, too broke to get the healing treatments I needed. So I confected a gig where I tested different ways to heal myself. Two birds, one stone.

I deliberated for days. How would I reduce things to The question that would provide a salve to all us Westerners seeking a more meaningful path through the fuggy, constipated, heart-sinky angst of life? The choice left my head spinning and chattering. What is it exactly that we need to know? Are we here to evolve into higher beings? Why are we so alone? Is there a grand scheme to our allotted eighty-five years?

When we meet a few weeks later, His Holiness kisses my hand and tosses his thongs aside. We sink into adjacent hotel room lounge chairs. I still dont have my one question. So I ask the most authentically pressing thing in that exact moment: