Permission to Break:

A Memoir of Strength, Silence, and Softness

By Rashida Saunders

Permission to Break is a self published memoir rooted in lived experience, service, motherhood, grief, and healing.

Written without gatekeepers and without compromise, this work is an invitation to choose honesty over endurance and come home to yourself.

Rashida Saunders holding her book titled 'Permission to Break'
Rashida Saunders holding her book titled 'Permission to Break'
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  • “A radical act of honesty and healing. This memoir gives readers permission to stop pretending, and start listening to themselves.”

    — Laura

  • “A powerful reminder that softness can be a form of survival and healing.”

    — Shauna

  • “Permission to Break is the kind of book you sit with, not rush through. It holds pain with care and reminds you that healing can be slow, tender, and still powerful. I finished it feeling less alone.”

    — Tasha

  • “Rashida Saunders writes with honesty, tenderness, and courage. This memoir doesn’t just tell a story, it creates space for your own. I felt seen, challenged, and comforted all at once.”

    — Alexia

  • “As someone who is used to holding everything together, this book felt like an exhale. Permission to Break gave me language for the weight I’ve been carrying and permission to lay some of it down.”

    — Lisa

  • “This book felt like permission to exhale. It named things I didn’t have language for and reminded me that strength doesn’t have to look like endurance. I felt seen in a way that was gentle and honest.”

    — Lena

Inside Permission to Break

Stories shaped by public service and personal reckoning
Honest reflections on identity, grief, faith, and emotional survival
The quiet work of learning to receive care

A reminder that breaking is not failure, it is often the beginning of something honest

More than a story, this is an invitation to return to yourself

Available in paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook

Purchase from Amazon
Purchase from Amazon

Listen in My Own Voice

A moment from the audiobook

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Rashida Saunders Permission to Break, Introduction

Continue the Work

The Permission to Break Workbook is a guided space for reflection, release, and softness.

Created to help you move from reading into practice, it offers prompts, exercises, and space to process your own story at your own pace.

Explore the Workbook

Why It Matters

This memoir is the foundation of Black Ember. The values in these pages shape our publishing, photography, and creative work. This is where it began.

Self published by design, Permission to Break stands as proof that you can own your voice, keep your rights, and build something meaningful on your own terms.