Anxious Adelie is a heart-wrenching story about a timid penguin’s struggle with anxiety. Adelie is a penguin living in Antarctica, and like many of us, she faces the daily challenge of dealing with her anxious thoughts and feelings. Adelie’s story is one of courage, perseverance, and hope, as she finds ways to cope with her anxiety and live a full and happy life. Through her story, we can learn how to be more understanding and supportive of those who suffer from anxiety, and how to help them find the strength to overcome their fears.
What does anxiety feel like? How can you help someone with anxiety? First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is the result of Sarah Wilsons 7-year journey to find a more meaningful and helpful take on anxiety. In it, she documents her conversations with people from the Dalai Lama to Oprahs life coach as well as practical tips and tricks that she used to manage her own anxiety. Here are her tips. I keep thinking that if I could only find it, I could tug at it and the whole ball would unravel cleanly. But, of course, when we meddle with things, the ball only gets knottier! It can feel so helpless. And fall. The decision-making part of the brain is very closely linked to the part of the brain that controls anxiety. For me, anxiety is about grasping forward into the future while depression is a reaching back into the past. I generally find anxious folk are obsessed with grasping to fixes, solutions. Depressed friends tend to be mired with regrets. This can be comforting to know. This is the most insidious aspect of anxiety it spirals. We get anxious. Then this realization sees us get anxious about being anxious about being anxious. And on it spins into a knotted ball of wool! We can also remember that many panic attacks are a compounding panic about the physical symptoms of anxiety the flight or fight response at full throttle. Most books tell you how to manage anxiety. I have seen how anxiety can be used to have a rich, joyous, creative or beautiful – life. Here are few techniques that can get you started. Both experiences release the same response in our brains. I like to sometimes choose to see my anxiety as my creative self getting inspired and fired up. Look back on your life and ovserve that some of the toughest moments led to some of your best experiences. I often say its non-negotiable when you have anxiety. Even meditating badly does its job. In fact, Ive found that years of angsty meditating has seen me battle out my anxiety through meditiation, and emerge from my 20 minutes on the cushion, resolved and bemused. My anxiety is the friction that sees me meditate with more commitment, spring forth into more creative projects, and gives me the raw perspective Ive needed to grow my business ventures. If you love someone who is anxious, this book is for you. 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 Oprahs 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 book with a big heart, paving the way for richer, kinder and wiser conversations about anxiety. Shes the founder of IQuitSugar. She is ranked as one of the top most influential authors in the world. Sarah blogs in an intimate fashion – on philosophy, anxiety, minimalism and anti-consumerism – at sarahwilson. Understanding issues such as depression, anxiety and burnout can be an important first step to coping during difficult times, and helping others do the same. Here is a selection of books that offer clarity and insight into important areas of well-being. Jake Tyler, author of A Walk from the Wild Edge, on the chance encounter that changed his walk around Britain and his ability to talk openly about mental health. For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more. By signing up, I confirm that Im over To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy. View all newsletter. We use cookies to make our website work. You can change your cookie settings by clicking Manage Cookies. For more information please see our Cookie Policy. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here. Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More. Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests.