ABOUT THE BOOK:
Do you believe that life is unfair or that change is impossible? Are you unhappy and frustrated with your life? If you answered yes, you’re not alone! Teen Confidence Expert, Jacqui Letran, is here to show you a quick and easy path to a happier, healthier life. You can learn to create permanent changes for the better!
Your past can cause you to believe that making positive improvements requires a miracle. In Letran’s award-winning book, I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!, you will learn the simple steps to overcome your obstacles and struggles. Once you understand how your mind works, you will have the knowledge and power to take control of your thoughts and feelings. The power to challenge your old negative patterns and create the exact life you want is in your hands.
In this book, you will discover:
- How to challenge old negative beliefs and create positive new patterns
- How to stay calm and in control of even the most difficult situations
- How to keep unhealthy thoughts at bay and replace them with positive ones
- How to use the power of your mind to create the success you deserve
- How to create positive life experiences and much, much more!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jacqui Letran is a passionate and energetic leader who is truly gifted at helping teens transform into confident, happy and successful young adults. Jacqui teaches teens that success and happiness are possible, regardless of their current struggles or circumstances.
Jacqui is an International Best Selling Author, National Speaker, and Founder of Teen Confidence Academy. She has 17 years of experience in Adolescent Health as a Nurse Practitioner, Success Coach and Teen Confidence Expert. Jacqui is passionate and committed to guiding teens to achieve remarkable success in their academic and personal lives.
She is also the winner of the 2016 Literary Classics Lumen Award and Gold Medal for Youth Non-Fiction and the 2016 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Award for Young Adult Non-Fiction
When not working with teens or writing, you can find her traveling in her RV, hiking with her dog or spoiling her three cats. She now lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
OUR REVIEWS:
Ariel - 5/5
Letran’s book, I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!, seeks to help teens overcome their struggles and I believe she does so successfully. I recommend this book to teens and parents alike. Letran’s writing style is superb. She explains difficult concepts with real-world examples that are understandable for the young reader. She does not talk down to her audience nor does she belittle their problems. She seems to come from a place of understanding and wants to help. She throws a lot of psychological terms, which made me nervous at first, but she explains everything so clearly and they prove to be helpful. She wants the reader to understand the mind and what is going on that makes a person feel unhappy and frustrated. By showing how the mind works and the roots of a teen’s problems, a solution is just around the corner! Letran also presents case studies that can give a reader comfort in not being alone in their problems and possible solutions. This book can also be helpful for parents. Letran goes out of her way to make sure that parents learn that their children need to be shown love. She teaches the reader that just one traumatizing moment with a parent can shape a child forever and this can be prevented. A parent can learn what their child is going through and how to handle that. With this book, parents and children can learn to control themselves and live positive lives.
ALLY
5 out of 5 stars
I am not normally drawn to nonfiction titles, but after reading this one, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand more about how their brain and conscience work, and how to thus control them. It’s written with a younger audience in mind, with the intention to teach them how to handle their emotions; the second person perspective speaks directly to them, teaching about what they are going through and providing a helping hand. Rather than a textbook or lofty scientific journal, the book speaks to the audience as a friend.
Fortunately, it avoids being too dry, as many informative nonfiction novels are. Largely, it accomplishes this by providing a compilation of information, easy-to-read lists, and exercises. While there are some dry facts to understand, they are split up and made more comprehensible by the audience-friendly format. This is a book for the masses, and ideally this style will make the book more accessible for young teens who are trying to understand how this whole conscience thing works. It will also open it up to adults who may not be inclined towards medical or scientific research but are still interested in understanding how the brain works.
Overall, it’s an undoubtedly interesting read that sheds some light on how our human brains work. It does so by creating simple versions of complex answers, but not so simple that the reader feels like a handheld child.
AMY
3 out of 5 stars
I really appreciated that the guidance in this book was so straightforward and easy to apply to everyday life. Letran offered simple steps for calming your mind and reprogramming it to recognize strengths instead of faults. The 60-second reader was a great way to recap and save the points of each section, and overall the book felt fluid and well-organized. Occasionally I wanted more details, such as with the concept of scrambling memories, but overall I would recommend this book to those who are interested in learning how the mind affects your perceptions of stress and other emotions.
Rating: 4/5 Stars - Jessica
My Review:
This encouraging, self-help book is definitely one that is needed in today’s society for teenagers who are struggling to cope with the demands placed on them. Young adults are facing an enormous amount of stress and anxiety in their lives, told to hide it, and are provided very few ways to safely cope. The book provides “60 second readers” that provide brief summaries of each chapter, along with places to self-reflect and take notes.
This book breaks down complicated ideas surrounding the brain into simpler topics and analogies. Jacqui provides numerous, relatable examples and case studies for teenagers to understand. It’s not a medical or technical book, but rather one that teenagers can feel confident reading and applying the concepts to their own lives.
As I read the book the maturity seemed to vary. I liked how the author simplified topics, but at points it felt more for teenagers in middle school. At other times, especially with the case studies, it felt more relatable for teenagers in high school. That being said, I think anybody around the teen age would benefit from reading this book, or at least the parts most beneficial to their life at the moment.