"First, We Make the Beast Beautiful" - Anxiety Book Review

While walking through an Urban Outfitters (of all places to conquer your anxiety), I spotted a deep purple book with silver letters and an image of a squid on the cover. Drawn to it, I read the title, “First, We Make the Beast Beautiful.” I I was more intrigued. I opened to a random page and started reading. Sarah Wilson’s honest, heartfelt and poignant words about anxiety almost had me camping out at Urban Outfitters all day. Instead, I reluctantly put the book down and used my digital Brooklyn Library app on my phone to request it be put on hold.

“First, We Make the Beast Beautiful” is a sort of memoir and sort of self-help book that tells Wilson’s story about her journey in and , at points, through, anxiety. Wilson is a journalist and former editor of Australian vogue. She is a self-proclaimed perfectionist and has made it a personal mission to uncover the root of happiness and pursue spiritual paths. She warns that she has not “figured it all out” and doesn’t have the answers, but in the tellings of her experiences and the musings on her readings and personal work, she gives ideas of things that have helped her cope at times. She talks extensively about meditation and the rich benefits she has found in it. She talks about the curative properties of long walks, gratitude, compassion, healing through nourishment, (she was a pioneer with her “I Quit Sugar” book series), the habit of doing “one thing every day” (make the bed) and thought techniques that help curb her persistent or perfectionist thought patterns.

Wilson discusses the idea of accepting her anxiety as a part of her, a part of what makes her unique, creative and great, and this is what she means by first “making the beast beautiful.” The book, really a series of notes, not necessarily fashioned in a structured or linear manner, can be difficult to read at times if you do have anxiety symptoms since she does such a good job describing what it feels like to live with it! She details her very real struggles that sometimes brought her to dark places. I think these parts of the memoir could potentially trigger someone in the midst of their own journey, but the book also has the potential to help readers with similar issues feel more connected, more understood and with ideas of how to quell their unquiet minds.