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alexandrabjarg's review against another edition
2.0
Nennti ekki alveg að klára hana, af því höfundur fer í óteljandi hringi og endurtekur sig mikið. Samt ekki alveg alslæmur lestur og fær því tvær stjörnur, alveg ákveðnar sögur og pælingar þarna sem er vit í en almennt mæli ég alls ekki með þessari sem einhverri góðri heimild um upplifanir fólks með kvíða.
joananogueira97's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
diazzzz's review against another edition
3.0
I feel pretty conflicted about this because I did think there was some great insight here on living with anxiety and parts that I really enjoyed, but I also couldn’t get past the whole white woman wellness griftiness of it. Also the rampant fatphobia throughout.
melbplease's review against another edition
4.0
I bought this book at then put off reading for a while because reading about anxiety with anxiety is somethings not fun! The author seems to understand this well. This didn’t have the tone of most self-help genre books and felt like a memoir with some extremely helpful anxiety tips and sprinkled in well researched studies.
It made me think about a few different things like meditation and panic attacks differently. It’s honest and worth a read if you struggle with anxiety yourself or have someone in your life who does. You’ll understand our minds better.
It made me think about a few different things like meditation and panic attacks differently. It’s honest and worth a read if you struggle with anxiety yourself or have someone in your life who does. You’ll understand our minds better.
lauren_soderberg's review against another edition
3.0
Sarah Wilson’s First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety has a few insights, but is bogged down by its editing stye and by the author’s own privilege. It’s more of a memoir than anything else, and while I applaud Wilson for being so forthright about her own personal journey through anxiety, depression, et al, I feel that it is full of mixed-messages. For instance: on the one hand, medication can be helpful to combat anxiety, but maybe not because the drug companies created anxiety terminology whilst simultaneously creating drugs to combat it. Also, there’s a lot of emphasis on Wilson’s sugar-free ideology, which mostly felt like a constant advertisement throughout the memoir. The only reason this is getting three stars instead of two is because I did find a few nuggets of advice (most of which I’ve gotten from other sources) that I found helpful.
I also love the idea of “making the beast beautiful,” which is something the author co-opted from a Chinese proverb. If the book had been more focused on that overarching idea, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I don’t think this is necessarily the book for people who have an actual anxiety disorder, rather it seems to pander to white spiritualism/white feminism subscribers, and doesn’t hold space for the marginalized (nor, I’d argue, for those who genuinely suffer from anxiety disorders).
I also love the idea of “making the beast beautiful,” which is something the author co-opted from a Chinese proverb. If the book had been more focused on that overarching idea, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I don’t think this is necessarily the book for people who have an actual anxiety disorder, rather it seems to pander to white spiritualism/white feminism subscribers, and doesn’t hold space for the marginalized (nor, I’d argue, for those who genuinely suffer from anxiety disorders).
trishwah's review against another edition
3.0
Marking this read although I only finished about 3/4. This is a weird book. I'm not sure if it's trying to be a self help book or a memoir. There are good tips scatter throughout, but after finishing a chapter I found myself remembering more about her than the tips. It was like I felt like the stories from her life distracted from the tips rather than driving them home. There is a lot of name dropping. It serves to credit her tips, but at some point it just feels like a lot of name dropping.
As a memoir, it's hard for me to visualize the timeline because it's not linear -- and here maybe my problem was I was listening to the audio book. She's clearly accomplished a lot in here life. I couldn't really square the person that went like, mountain biking alone, with the person crushed by mental illness and autoimmune disorder and then turned right around got some to die for high powered job (aren't gaps in employment fatal?) Again, the further I went through the book, the more I though the narrative obscured the advice.
But here is what I gleaned from it.
Meditation is non-negotiable
Exercise is non-negotiable
Talk to yourself as you would a child
Write a letter to your anxiety validating why you are anxious and thanking it.
Get enough sleep.
Not too much sugar
Make your bed
Do core exercises
Admit you are anxious.
Stop your head, drop into your heart.
Do Belly breathing
Have a gratitude ritual
Walk and breathe in for three from the ground(left right left) out into the ground (right left right)
Walk in nature
Have a purpose (fulfill your yearning)
Anxiety is about the unknowable future. Depression is about the past. Two sides of a coin.
Be present. Be in the now
Get a Thai massage
Find something physical that breaks you out of your anxiety spiral
Ask yourself what's the problem.
Truth is: you're fine.
Truth is: anxiety is trying to keep you safe.
Pain is important, or it can be.
The physical dietary stuff is a two way street. It can make us anxious. We can get less anxious with the right habits.
Quit sugar
Eat real food: fruits and veggies, yogurt and fermented foods.
Supplement. Magnesium, d, b6, c. See a naturopath
Reduce decisions. Get recommendations. Or flip a coin and move on.
Drop certainty anchors. Bits soft solid ground in your say you don't have to think about.
Have a morning routine.
Back the fuck off. Or don't over analyze.
Yoga: fold forward and surrender
But, sometimes do something counter to your routine. Eat breakfast for dinner. Sleep at the wrong end of the bed.
Book time to do nothing.
Find space between breaths.
Smile with your eyes.
Ayurveda: anxiety just need rebalancing.
Modern life is overstimulating. We have to find boundaries, block some of it out. Figure out what you have to block out.
Check things less often. Or create a Sabbath. Respond less. Own less.
Accept some imperfections.
Experience the cycle of defending, experiencing pain, opening, releasing and then something will shift and happen for you. Then grace will happen. You will have post traumatic growth/character.
Grow old. Get to the point where you give no fucks.
We are anxious when we are not in touch with ourselves and our purpose.
Anxiety can be a super power.
As a memoir, it's hard for me to visualize the timeline because it's not linear -- and here maybe my problem was I was listening to the audio book. She's clearly accomplished a lot in here life. I couldn't really square the person that went like, mountain biking alone, with the person crushed by mental illness and autoimmune disorder and then turned right around got some to die for high powered job (aren't gaps in employment fatal?) Again, the further I went through the book, the more I though the narrative obscured the advice.
But here is what I gleaned from it.
Meditation is non-negotiable
Exercise is non-negotiable
Talk to yourself as you would a child
Write a letter to your anxiety validating why you are anxious and thanking it.
Get enough sleep.
Not too much sugar
Make your bed
Do core exercises
Admit you are anxious.
Stop your head, drop into your heart.
Do Belly breathing
Have a gratitude ritual
Walk and breathe in for three from the ground(left right left) out into the ground (right left right)
Walk in nature
Have a purpose (fulfill your yearning)
Anxiety is about the unknowable future. Depression is about the past. Two sides of a coin.
Be present. Be in the now
Get a Thai massage
Find something physical that breaks you out of your anxiety spiral
Ask yourself what's the problem.
Truth is: you're fine.
Truth is: anxiety is trying to keep you safe.
Pain is important, or it can be.
The physical dietary stuff is a two way street. It can make us anxious. We can get less anxious with the right habits.
Quit sugar
Eat real food: fruits and veggies, yogurt and fermented foods.
Supplement. Magnesium, d, b6, c. See a naturopath
Reduce decisions. Get recommendations. Or flip a coin and move on.
Drop certainty anchors. Bits soft solid ground in your say you don't have to think about.
Have a morning routine.
Back the fuck off. Or don't over analyze.
Yoga: fold forward and surrender
But, sometimes do something counter to your routine. Eat breakfast for dinner. Sleep at the wrong end of the bed.
Book time to do nothing.
Find space between breaths.
Smile with your eyes.
Ayurveda: anxiety just need rebalancing.
Modern life is overstimulating. We have to find boundaries, block some of it out. Figure out what you have to block out.
Check things less often. Or create a Sabbath. Respond less. Own less.
Accept some imperfections.
Experience the cycle of defending, experiencing pain, opening, releasing and then something will shift and happen for you. Then grace will happen. You will have post traumatic growth/character.
Grow old. Get to the point where you give no fucks.
We are anxious when we are not in touch with ourselves and our purpose.
Anxiety can be a super power.
horfhorfhorf's review against another edition
2.0
This isn't a book about anxiety so much as a trip through the author's unchecked mania and type-A personality quirks. As unreadable as Matt Haig's books on depression, which is, of course, quoted by Wilson multiple times.