• Permission to Feel

  • Unlock the Power of Emotions to Help Yourself and Your Children Thrive
  • By: Marc Brackett
  • Narrated by: Marc Brackett
  • Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

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Permission to Feel  By  cover art

Permission to Feel

By: Marc Brackett
Narrated by: Marc Brackett
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Publisher's summary

A practical and transformative 5-step strategy to ensure the emotional well-being of yourself and your child.

The mental well-being of children and adults is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why and what we can do. 

Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University's Child Study Center, and in his 25 years as an emotion scientist, he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults - a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. 

The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognise the suffering, bullying, and abuse he'd endured.   

In the decades since, Marc has led large research teams and raised tens of millions of dollars to investigate the roots of emotional well-being. 

His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers and schools) is a system called Ruler, a high-impact and effective approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. Ruler has been proven to reduce stress and burnout, improve school climate and enhance academic achievement. This book is his way to share the strategies and skills with listeners around the world. It is tested, and it works.

©2019 Marc Brackett (P)2019 Quercus Editions Limited

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What listeners say about Permission to Feel

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Insightfully BRILLIANT

I have never written so many of my own notes on a book. This book needs to be read by every person who works with other humans, but especially by those who work with children in schools. I plan to implement these strategies among my team at a school in South Africa. Super exited and utterly inspired (high energy and very pleasant yellow feelings). Thank you for this educational gem.

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  • SMInc
  • 06-27-20

Not just for parents. Self-help and help others too.

This would be a great book for teachers and heads to read, and for anyone in management or personnel (HR) departments. But really it could be useful for anyone.
It teaches a scientifically-based, real-world-proven approach to recognizing emotions (your own or those of others) and dealing with them in healthier ways, with better outcomes for everyone.

The author has published curricula for integrating the teaching of emotional intelligence into all levels of schooling from Kindergarten to the end of High School. It would be brilliant if this could be included in the UK national curriculum.
Not knowing how to talk about or express emotions is a major factor in aggression, rage and violence. Thus a society which teaches how to recognise and distinguish between nuances of emotions is helping their populace live less frustrated and more peaceful and happy lives.

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11 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 10-09-20

Where were the charts?

It was an interesting listen, but he kept referring to a coloured chart that isn't included in the audiobook. I also found that it had lots of compelling reasons why emotional intelligence is important, but not many actual strategies to use, especially with children.

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8 people found this helpful

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  • Ade
  • 11-06-19

Insightful

Such an insightful book, filled with so many practical pearls of wisdom. It’s a book that needs to be read again and again and again..... and discussed with friends, family and colleagues. Wish my parents and teachers had this resource when I was growing up, it would saved me a few therapy bills!!

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6 people found this helpful

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  • Dorota Piotrowska
  • 05-25-20

Dorota

Amazing journey - profound yet very accessible. A must read for any educator and parent.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Reluctant shopper
  • 06-21-20

Admirable aim - not sure how to put into practice

I like the intention of the book - to support a greater level of emotional intelligence in both young people and their carers/teachers. Would have liked more content on the strategies to enable conversations about feelings and ways to support emotional regulation both for myself and others.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Ian D.
  • 12-29-20

effortless and informative

nice read, very easy to relate to and flows nicely! good mixture of researched content and anecdote which made book enjoyable and effortless

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  • Elettra (Rebel Angel)
  • 12-02-20

Informs my daily work in school

I’m listening to this book for the 4th time. It’s not only inspiring and eye-opening: it’s NECESSARY. It has driven me to bring a little revolution in the schools I work for, and it’s making a profound difference to my approach to education and the outlook of the colleagues i share it with.

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  • Marcus G
  • 10-03-20

Worth the listen

I loved that the author takes the reader through identifying feelings and his 'ruler' acronym. The last few chapter were as relevant for me. The narration was great and the story was good He dealt honestly with some hard events in his life. This is well worth the listen!

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  • JJ
  • 09-12-20

One to read if you struggle expressing emotions!

I really enjoyed this refreshing take on the importance of emotional literacy, something that our society is slowly beginning to understand the importance of. I bought it as part of my ongoing journey to help my children grow into thriving adults and would recommend this for anyone that has struggled to express &/or understand their emotions. I would particularly encourage it for male-identifying people (if that's a word!)

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  • Antony Christie
  • 08-22-20

A must for parents, psych students or anyone wanting more emotional intelligence

Professor Brackett may be the world’s leading authority on emotion and introduces his RULER approach: recognise, understand, label, express and regulate.

The book also has a dynamic table of contents (all of the chapter and section info) which makes jump to the relevant chapter when digging deeper or second pass.

Please give all audiobooks a dynamic ToC like this Audible!!!

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  • Julie
  • 10-24-20

Inspired me to change my stoic attitude

Inspiring and coherent explanation of why responding to emotion better is the key to success at home, work and school. Have listened to it twice, and my only criticism would be that the 'why' is well done, the 'how' moves pretty quickly and is a bit too brief.

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  • Nic
  • 11-15-20

good 😊

I personally needed this. I'm going to read the hard copy. Mark brackets reading style is a little 'stop start' for me. The book is fool of gold. if you can't be bothered with this book, you need it.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 11-17-21

Everyone should read this!!

Thank you Marc Brackett for being Emotionally Intellegent. I believe this is a necessity for life and being a functional human being. If we were all taught Emotional Intellegence, as a fundamental subject, as childten we would have a happier, safer more functional existance. We would treat eachother with respect and kindness.

Most dysfunction comes from the, little know how of expressing and managing our feelings. We look after our body, but do we care for our mind in the same way! How did that get left out? I want to learn how to share and feel my emotions and thoughts, do you?

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  • Selwyn Favish
  • 10-29-21

What the world needs.

Every human will benefit from this learning. A God send of easy to understand, relatable information. It makes it ok to both recognise how inadequate our emotional vocabulary is and thus, ability to adequately express ourselves effectively with others and acknowledge that this is a skill we all need to develop, not an innate gift of a few. As an educator and parent this is the missing piece of the puzzle in the world of positive emotion, anti bullying, self-awareness and resilience education programs that are employed in parenting and education settings.
I’d love a hard copy and resources as reference to develop my emotional vocabulary. If you can’t define your emotions in over 80 words , it’s ok, it’s not your fault! If you suck at communicating as a parent or other person that others look up to, it’s ok… this is where you start to grow.
The author’s reading is not completely fluent, but the authenticity of him sharing his story in his words makes this point forgivable.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 02-17-21

A much needed call to action for us all

Thank you for writing this book, Professor Brackett. It is one of the most important works I have ever read and put into words the struggle I am seeing and hearing about in homes, workplaces, schools and across communities. It provides practical, research based strategies to help us achieve the society we know we crave for ourselves and our children especially.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-08-21

Life changer!

If you are looking to change your life for the best, stop here. If you are looking to help your children, this is it! Embrace your emotions, feelings.... for a better version of yourself.... for them, for you.
Fantastic!

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  • Sarah Bentley
  • 07-30-20

Life changing book!

I loved the content so much and listening to Mark speak on the podcast with Brene Brown. Listening to Mark narrate this book was a little more difficult, it felt like pauses were at odd times and made it harder to follow but I loved it none the less. Thanks for your amazing work Mark, I've recommended this book to everyone I've spoken to over tge past two weeks.

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  • Adrian
  • 07-09-23

Wonderful messages

The author takes us on a wonderful journey, exploring all aspects of emotions, with inspirational ideas for a future of ‘emotion scientists’.
The reader sounds like AI.

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  • Karolina
  • 03-28-23

Interesting read but the narration isn’t great

The content is great but the narration doesn’t flow well and is tricky to listen to. Recommend reading instead of listening to this book.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 12-03-22

Heartwarming

An informative and insightful book, full of wisdom and knowledge that I hope will be shared and taught worldwide 🙏
What a wonderful world it “will be” when emotional intelligence is embraced by all 💗

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