Permission To Feel by Marc Brackett, Ph. D is one of those books that can easily be called a game-changer.

It was the subtitle that hooked me:

Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

I am a PTSD survivor and my son is autistic, so you can imagine that emotions run pretty high in this home. As I was just preparing to write this review, my son rushed in, in tears and incredibly distraught, because a neighborhood kid had thrown a dead cicada at him. Luckily, I’d finished reading this book and was able to work through the moment using the main element of this book: The RULER Method.

In the RULER framework, the first three skills— Recognizing, Understanding, and Labeling— help us to accurately identify and decode what we and others are feeling. Then, the two remaining skills— Expressing and Regulating— tell us how we can manage those emotions to achieve desired outcomes— our ultimate goal.”

Marc Brackett, Ph. D. – Permission to feel

It is a wonderful tool for getting through feelings, which the book describes as the internal response to an emotion.

The book reads very well. There are plenty of scientific data and real-world examples to emphasize the causes and effects of emotions as well as the method presented. I, of course, particularly enjoyed the section on how emotions affect creativity. It helped identify what was holding me back when I had “writer’s block” and explained that emotions could be used to enhance creativity as well as hinder it. That gave me a big boost.

I recommend this book to literally everyone. There is not a single person it can’t help. So buy it for yourself, your family members, your friends…hell, even your child’s teacher.

For more, see the GMA interview.