Sarah Wilson

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. 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. In her new book, she directs her intense focus and fierce investigatory skills onto this lifetime companion of hers, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism her own experiences. 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. Practical and poetic, wise and funny, this is a small book with a big heart. It will encourage the myriad sufferers of the world's most common mental illness to feel not just better about their condition, but delighted by the possibilities it offers for a richer, fuller life.

Will you sleep through the revolution? Or do you want to wake up and reclaim your one wild and precious life? We live in truly overwhelming times. The climate crisis, political polarisation, racial injustice and coronavirus have left many of us in a state of spiritual PTSD. We have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection - from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it. Sarah Wilson argues that this sense of despair and disconnection is ironically what unites us - that deep down, we are all feeling that same itch for a new way of living. this one wild and precious life opens our eyes to how we got here and offers a radically hopeful path forward. Drawing on science, literature, philosophy, the wisdom of some of the world's leading experts, and her personal journey, Wilson weaves a one-of-a-kind narrative that lights the way back to the life we love. En route, she leads us through a series of 'wildly awake' and joyful practices for reconnecting again that include: - Go to your edge. Do what scares you and embrace discomfort daily. Use it to grow into your Big Life. - #buylesslivemore. Break the cycle of mindless consumption and get light with your life. - Become a soul nerd. Embrace poetry, deep reading, art, and classical music to light up your intellect. - Get 'full-fat spiritual'. How to have an active practice - beyond the 'lite' 'rainbows and unicorns' - and use it to change the world. - Hike. Just hike. Walking in nature reconnects us with ourselves, and with our true purpose. - Practise wild activism. If you can get 3.5 per cent of a population to participate in sustained, non-violent protest, change happens. We create our better world. The time has come to boldly, wildly, imagine better. We are being called upon, individually and as a society, to forge a new path and to find a new way of living. Will you join the journey?

The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast, you must first make it beautiful. Sarah Wilson first came across this Chinese proverb in psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison's memoir An Unquiet Mind, and it became the key to understanding her own lifelong struggle with anxiety. Wilson, bestselling author, journalist, and entrepreneur has helped over 1.5 million people worldwide to live better, healthier lives through her I Quit Sugar books and program. And all along, she has been managing chronic anxiety. In First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, Wilson directs her intense focus and fierce investigating skills onto her lifetime companion, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism of her own experiences. Wilson offers readers comfort, humor, companionship, and practical tips for living with the Cultivate a "gratitude ritual." You can't be grateful and anxious at the same time. Eat to curb anxiety. Real food is your best friend. Just breathe. Embrace the healing power of meditation. Make your bed. Every day. Simple outer order creates inner calm. Study fellow fretters to know thyself. Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. all struggled with anxiety. Actively practice missing out. Forget FOMO, curl up on the couch, and order takeout. Practical and poetic, wise and funny, First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is a small book with a big heart. It will encourage the myriad souls who dance with this condition to embrace it as a part of who they are, and to explore the possibilities it offers for a richer, fuller life.

'I loved this book.' Matt Haig, author of Reasons to Stay Alive'Probably the best book on living with anxiety that I've ever read.' Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck If you have anxiety, this book is for you. If you love someone who is anxious, this book is for you. I Quit Sugar founder and New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson has lived through high anxiety – including bipolar, OCD and several suicide attempts – her whole life. Perhaps like you, she grew tired of seeing anxiety as a disease that must be medicated into submission. Could anxiety be re-sewn, she asked, into a thing of beauty? So began a seven-year journey to find a more meaningful and helpful take on anxiety. Living out of two suitcases, Sarah travelled the world, meeting with His Holiness The Dalai Lama, with Oprah’s life coach, with major mental health organizations and hundreds of others in a quest to unravel the knotted ball of wool that is the anxious condition. She emerged with the very best philosophy, science and hacks for thriving with the beast. First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is a small book with a big heart, paving the way for richer, kinder and wiser conversations about anxiety.

The New York Times bestselling author of First, We Make the Beast Beautiful tackles the loneliness epidemic, encouraging readers to view solitude through a spiritual lens, and embrace the art of being alone. This is not just a book for single people, introverts, or the self-proclaimed lone wolf. You can be in a crowded room, or at a dinner table with your spouse and children, and still feel powerfully lonely and disengaged. Forty-six percent of Americans sometimes or always feel lonely, and loneliness is a public health hazard that rivals alcoholism, smoking, and obesity. Meanwhile, as our cultural sense of disconnection grows, our endless drive for “more”—more social media, more technology, overconsumption, workaholism—grows too. But what if we were to shut off our devices and simply sit with ourselves in what Wilson calls “radical aloneness?" Could this be the antidote to the profound sense of disconnection that we feel? In the voice-driven style that built a community around her last book, Wilson embarks on a personal and spiritual journey that is destined to become a movement.