First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is a deeply personal, unsentimental guide to living with anxiety. Sarah Wilson refuses tidy fixes. Instead, she offers a map: observation before intervention, ritual before willpower, acceptance before optimization. The book blends candid stories with evidence-based practices, often landing on paradoxes that ring true: your life gets lighter when you stop trying to feel light all the time; steadiness grows when you replace dramatic overhauls with small, faithful rituals.

Wilson emphasizes environment and rhythm. Morning anchors (light movement, journaling, warm drinks), nutrition that avoids blood-sugar whiplash, and screen rules that protect attention form a base layer of calm. She pairs these with reframes: view anxiety as over-amped care rather than a moral failure; treat rumination as a request for clarity; label avoidance gently and choose a tiny next step. Anxiety loses some of its bite when it is named precisely and answered with proportionate action.

Relationships matter. Wilson suggests asking for “clear plus kind” support: specific check-ins, shared outdoor walks, or co-working sessions that make the hard parts companionable. Boundaries are redefined as acts of love—limits that protect your ability to show up tomorrow. Spiritual practices—silence, nature, gratitude—serve as quiet technologies for resetting a nervous system that runs hot.

The promise isn’t a life without anxiety. It’s a life where anxiety becomes a teacher. You learn to honor your sensitivities, structure your days around what steadies you, and talk to yourself as you would to a dear friend. That shift—from fixing to befriending—turns the beast from an enemy into an unlikely guide.

See also: First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About, Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix, The Ethical Slut: a Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities