What if the loneliest moment of your life was also the moment something started growing?

Miist was abandoned by her parents at five years old. At 28, she was handed a terminal cancer diagnosis. She didn't write her first song until she was 34 — and now her music has charted on Billboard, making her the first native Chinese artist to reach the Pop AC chart.

But this conversation isn't really about the charts.

It's about what happens when you stop running from the feelings you've spent decades outrunning. Miist and I talk about loneliness after loss — the quiet grief nobody schedules a casserole for — and the astonishingly small actions that can pull a person back toward the world.

If you're carrying a loss right now, or feeling more disconnected than you'd like to admit, this one is for you. 💜

WHAT WE EXPLORE:

✨ Why abandonment can cut deeper than death — and how that first wound shapes every relationship after it

✨ How Miist deliberately chose to sit inside her grief instead of running from it, and what it taught her

✨ The 15-second actions that can change the texture of a hard day (smile, be silly, be grateful, say a kind word, remind someone you love them)

✨ The song she wrote for a young man who passed alone in his apartment — and how it became 16 language versions across the world

✨ Why the struggle in your life may be a feature and not a bug 🌱

IF YOU'VE EVER ASKED:

❓ "Why do I push people away right when things start going well?"

❓ "The problem is so much bigger than me — what could I possibly do that matters?"

❓ "Shouldn't I be over this by now?"

...then pull up a chair. You're in the right place.

We also get into something I don't say often enough on this show: I'm still healing too. Miist and I both talk about grief from inside it, not from the other side of it. Shayna's angelversary is coming up again in a month. The work doesn't end. But it does grow something. 🌳

💬 Continue the conversation — read the article and leave a comment at https://grief2growth.substack.com

CONNECT WITH MIIST:

🎵 Website: https://www.miistthesinger.com

🎙️ Podcast: Make Me Smile with Miist (available wherever you listen)

📖 Book: Make Me Smile with Miist

🧊 The Kindness Kube: https://www.miistthesinger.com

– – – Let's Connect: – – –

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⏰ Free consult: https://grief2growth.as.me/30-minute-consult

– – – Chapters: – – –

00:00 🌱 Planted, Not Buried

01:10 🎤 Meet Miist

03:00 💔 Abandoned at Five

05:29 🎵 The Apology She Wrote as a Song

07:46 🏥 The Diagnosis That Brought Her Family Back

11:55 🎹 Six Months of Arguing, Three Songs in One Day

15:25 ⭐ Discovered at Aretha Franklin's Piano

19:34 🐾 Choosing to Sit With Grief

22:20 🕊️ Forgiving the Father Who Left

26:12 😊 The Song for a Man Who Passed Alone

28:54 ⏱️ 15 Seconds That Can Change a Day

33:21 📞 Remind Someone That You Love Them

37:47 🎧 Using Music to Move Emotion

44:21 💛 Love Will Show Us Our Way

48:50 🌳 Still Healing, Still Growing