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.

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Reader Reviews

  • “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

This is not just a story. It is an invitation to return to yourself.

Available in paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.
A companion workbook is also available for guided reflection and deeper work.

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Listen in My Own Voice

A moment from the audiobook

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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.

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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.