The mental well-being of children and adults is shockingly poor. Marc
Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what
we can do.
We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are our children.
Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University's Child Study Center and
founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. 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 recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he'd
endured. And that was the beginning of Marc's awareness that what he was
going through was temporary. He wasn't alone, he wasn't stuck on a
timeline, and he wasn't "wrong" to feel scared, isolated, and angry.
Now, best of all, he could do something about it.
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 fast-effect
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 the culmination of Marc's
development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with
readers around the world. It is tested, and it works.
This book combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal
parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of
their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don't have to be.
Marc Brackett's life mission is to reverse this course, and this book
can show you how.
