Book Review: The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest

Truth bomb — I am prone to self-help burnout.

Yes, my blog is based on glowing up mentally and physically, but I do also encourage you to regularly hit the brakes.

You’re not a constant self-improvement project. Sometimes you need to loosen the grip on striving to be better and healthier and learn to have fun.

Which is the motto I live by.

So I limit myself to reading a non-fiction book every 2-3 months.

And as it’s been 4 months since my last book review, I thought it was about time I embraced the self-development genre again!

And honestly, I’m glad I chose this book to see me through to the end of the year.

Here’s everything you need to know about The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest and my main takeaways.

P.S. If you’re new here, hey! I’m Thalia. I help burnt-out girlies like you build a life that’s aligned, magnetic, and unapologetically yours. Every week(ish), I share content on burnout recovery, self-development, finding joy, and career growth. Subscribe here so you never miss a debrief.

Why I chose The Mountain Is You

After a huge historical fiction binge, I was in the mood for a bit of self-improvement.

I’ve been following Brianna Wiest on Instagram for a while now, and her thoughtful and mindful quotes always resonate so much with me. They make me stop, think and question how I want to show up for myself that day and in life.

Her book, The Mountain Is You has been on my TBR list for a while, so I thought there was no time like the present.

I’m currently going through some BIG changes — both professionally and personally.

This upgrade has been making me question the way I’ve been doing things, challenging me to improve and forcing me to dig deep and think about the future of my business.

It’s been scary and eye-opening all at the same time.

And like many of us, when I’m faced with overwhelming growth, I like to retreat back to my comfort zone rather than accept discomfort and uncertainty.

I came to realise that the mountain standing in my way and holding me back from bigger, better things was me. And so it was time to take responsibility for my actions and confront my resistance to change head-on.

Disclaimer — I’m not saying The Mountain Is You was the solution to all my problems. But it did make me more aware of things I’d previously neglected or hadn’t even considered.

The lowdown on The Mountain Is You

The Mountain Is You is all about breaking free from self-sabotage.

Self-sabotage refers to unconscious behaviours or thoughts that hold us back from our innermost needs.

Actions like procrastination, negative self-talk and avoiding opportunities, often rooted in fears or insecurities are all signs of self-sabotage.

Throughout The Mountain Is You, Wiest addresses each barrier and offers practical insights on how you can recognise these patterns and start to overcome them.

And of course, it all comes down to doing the inner work and cultivating a strong and resilient mindset.

Split up into 7 powerful chapters, The Mountain Is You covers how to:

• Recognise your triggers and overcome them
• Build emotional intelligence
• Release a past you’ve outgrown and old beliefs
• Build a future that supports the person you want to be
• Transform self-sabotage into self-mastery

In short, The Mountain Is You is a life-changing book which is a must-read for everyone.

“To truly heal, you are going to have to change the way you think. You are going to have to become very conscious of negative and false beliefs and start shifting to a mindset that actually serves you.”

Brianna Wiest | The Mountain is You

How easy is The Mountain Is You to read?

In short, The Mountain Is You is extremely easy to read.

However, I would say it reads more like an essay than a digestible guide or handbook.

Although Wiest writes in a supportive and friendly tone of voice, the content can be quite heavy and hard-hitting at times. But for a book about self-sabotage, I guess this is necessary!

I also recommend that you buy the Kindle version!

Trust me when I say this — The Mountain Is You is full of aha moments. And if you’re like me, you’re going to want to underline every single golden nugget.

With Kindle for iPad, you can seamlessly make colour-coded highlights and instantly copy them into a notes app or Notion (which is what I do). You’ll then always have access to your underlinings and can refer back to them whenever you need to.

Overall, The Mountain Is You is an extremely well-written book, and I learnt a lot from it.

The only thing I would say is that I got a bit bored towards the end.

Earlier, I mentioned that I get burnt out from self-help books if I read them too often. But with this one, I got burnout from just reading it. I felt like I was being passively talked at rather than guided through the steps, which is what I look for in self-development books.

The book lacked actionable steps and summary chapters, which would have been a massive help.

Wiest covers a lot within this book, so having a bullet point list summarising the key points and explaining how to implement them would have been super useful.

My 3 biggest takeaways from The Mountain Is You

1 | It taught me about self-sabotage and how to manage it

Ok, so before reading this book, I wasn’t too familiar with self-sabotage.

I’d obviously seen the term on social media and had used it a few times myself, but rather than assuming what it meant and adding my own meaning to it (like what people love to do with manifestation), I chose to learn about the ins and outs of self-sabotage.

Sure, the term ‘self-sabotage’ is pretty self-explanatory, but there’s a deeper understanding.

For starters, self-sabotage is mistaken as something that we intentionally do to hurt ourselves.

But Wiest emphasises that the act of self-sabotage is not actually a deliberate thing that we do.

Instead, it’s a way of trying “to protect ourselves” from change and discomfort. And reframing self-sabotage as a form of protection can act as a more effective strategy for overcoming it.

For example, rather than viewing procrastination as a hindrance, view it as a sign that something isn’t right and needs your attention. She further explains that overcoming self-sabotage is not about “overriding these impulses” with another coping mechanism but getting to the root cause of why you do it in the first place.

Other coping mechanisms to look out for include:

• Resistance
• Uprooting
• Perfectionism
• Limited emotional processing skills
• Justification
• Disorganisation
• Attachment to what you don’t really want
• Judging others
• Pride
• Guilt of succeeding
• Fear of failing
• Downplaying
• Unhealthy habits
• Being busy
• Spending time with the wrong people
• Worrying about irrational fears and the least likely circumstances

Want to know how you can “climb” over these barriers?

You gotta read the book!

2 | It debunks very public “glow-ups”

Since last year, I’ve slowly been debunking viral wellness trends on TikTok that have toxic underpinnings.

One of those trends was “That Girl”, which shows wellness pigeonhole into 12-second video clips of green juices, avocado toast, skincare products, squats and home workouts in matching athleisure.

I personally find these aesthetically pleasing videos quite funny because wellness isn’t always going to be Insta-worthy. It can be extremely uncomfortable (mental wellness), sweaty (physical wellness) and ugly (emotional wellness).

But these aren’t the moments we see on social media.

Instead, we see carefully pieced-together videos and images that use filters and trending audio that says something along the lines of, “To become your best self you must… insert generic tip here.”

This always gets me thinking — are the women who share this type of content actually taking their wellness seriously?

Or are they simply doing it for the likes and to grow an audience so they can later sell matcha powder and supplements?

Unfortunately, people are still far too concerned with how things look to others rather than thinking about whether something is actually supporting them or not. The reason behind their wellness journey has been lost to external validation.

And Wiest emphasises this in her book when she states that, “A real glow-up is authentic.”

Which literally hits the nail on the head.

If these influencers are genuinely sharing their glow-up journey for educational purposes (not for the money or likes), then why do they need to have a perfectly manicured environment?

Surely, messy content wouldn’t matter to their audience because they’re being real, imperfect and true to who they are.

“The next time you’re trying to craft a glow up story that is compelling to others, ask yourself why you are still waiting for their approval.”

Brianna Wiest | The Mountain is You

3 | It confirms that I already have everything I need inside of me

Some of my favourite quotes are by Rumi, including:

“Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are.”

“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck.”

Why? Because they show me that the person I am now is already capable of greatness. They make me realise that I don’t need to rely on anyone else or a future version of me to make my life better.

This is already within my reach.

I sometimes think self-development is mistaken as something we do to become someone else.

We adopt new habits, develop new skills, change jobs and move house or country in the hope that these things will make us better, and of course happier.

But what these quotes reveal is that true growth comes from within and learning to embrace who we already are.

And that’s what I also learnt from The Mountain Is You.

I don’t need to learn more skills or strengths to overcome my self-sabotage.

I’m already “equipped with the exact traits” that I need. And this comes down to me recognising what I already possess and unlocking it from the inside.

Remember, glowing up isn’t always about picking up another self-help book, building a new healthy habit or relying on external changes. It might simply be about looking inward and calling on the strengths and skills you already have to guide you towards where you want to be.

“One day, the mountain that was in front of you will be so far behind you, it will barely be visible in the distance. But who you become in learning to climb it? That will stay with you forever. That is the point of the mountain.”

Brianna Wiest | The Mountain is You

Final thoughts

The thing I love most about non-fiction books is that they’re always going to be relevant.

Take Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill for example. It was written back in 1937 but it still remains one of the most popular books on money mindset and wealth consciousness today.

It offers timeless wisdom that can be applied to your life regardless of what era you’re in.

And that’s also true with The Mountain Is You.

This book is not a book to read once and forget about.

It is to be referred back to again and again. Whether that’s a whole chapter, just a page or the entire book.

Remember, self-development is not a check box item.

It is a lifelong journey, and chances are you’ll stumble across new self-sabotaging habits as you continue to evolve and grow. (Familiarise yourself with the coping mechanisms above so you can catch them early on.)

And for that reason, The Mountain Is You will still resonate even when you’re going through your 2nd, 3rd or 4th glow-up.

So when you read through the book for the first time, embrace each teaching as a lifelong companion in case you need to return to it or pass it on to a friend.

You’ve got this.

Thalia xx

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