Misti Rains is an American motivational speaker, life coach, and blogger. She began her career as an elementary school teacher before turning her attention to teaching others how to heal and overcome life’s most defeating moments. Her various life experiences have produced inspirational messages with profound spiritual principles that emphasize forgiveness and love for self and others.
Misti lives in Auburn, Alabama with her three children. Her book, Misti Moments, is set to release this coming fall.
Exclusive Interview
What inspired you to write “Misti Moments?” The original inspiration for Misti Moments came after I suffered a brain aneurysm as a result of a ruptured hemangioma in my brain stem. I was told by my neurosurgeon there was nothing they could do for me because to operate would mean cutting through the healthy stem cell tissue leaving me in a much worse condition. I spent a year recovering from that brush with death while facing a less than promising diagnosis which included a 50% or greater chance of more bleeds throughout my lifetime. This incident caused me to look within, to face myself, and to reflect. I began to think of anything that I had left undone or unsaid in my life. My heart began to turn towards my children with a heart to speak directly to them. I want to leave a legacy of wisdom laced with love for them; wisdom gleaned from the various moments in my life that had served as profound teachers to me. I began with a heart to write for them so that if anything ever happened to me or if I suffered another bleed and was able to write or speak, they would have my voice there to help mother, nurture, and guide them throughout their life. I was determined to write for them as much as I could for as long as I could. Little did I know at the time that I was going to lose my step-dad of cancer followed two months later by the loss of my own mother in an unexpected and tragic heart attack. Little did I know at the time that after her death, I would find messages and letters that she had tucked away and kept for my sister and me from lessons she had learned throughout her journey. Other than my children and family, her profound and heart-piercing writings have become my greatest earthly treasure and served as increased inspiration for me to grab my pen and write with more purpose and determination than ever before.
What can readers expect from your upcoming book? These short essays will serve as a compass to help the reader face the circumstances of their life with more purpose, intention, gratitude, awe, and an eagle’s eye view of what the various moments they encounter throughout their life are truly there to teach them. I believe Misti Moments is a heart-piercing read, one that softens and hopefully heals the soul as the reader absorbs the lessons in each “moment” that is presented throughout the book.
How would you describe the book? Misti Moments is a collection of writings inspired from various moments in my life that I believe have produced genuine pieces of divine, higher truths that serve to awaken, uplift, and heal the spirit. I believe these stories or “moments” have produced universal lessons that will provide readers with the framework for living the truest, most authentic, and happiest versions of themselves.
What is the main message, or messages, you’d like your readers to take away from Misti Moments? Moments bring both love and loss, both hope and despair. They teach through both pain and pleasure, tears, and triumphant. In the end, it’s the wisdom, love, healing, release, and forgiveness our hearts and souls glean from this array of moments that genuinely count. It’s not the moment itself that leaves us forever changed. It’s what the moment was there to teach us. Moments are purposeful. I pray the moments the reader spends reading mine will help them better face all of theirs. I pray they find healing, kindness, warmth, and a heart-gripping pull towards all that they truly are...towards their home... towards love.
You express that individual moments, both good and bad, influence our lives. Explain to our readers why you feel each individual moment can be seen as a learning experience, especially the painful ones.
Life is a series of moments. Some we love. Some we wish we could forget. Some hold us down. Some lift us up. Some fight to keep us bound. Some arrive to set us free. There are defeating moments, heart-breaking moments, and moments that carry with them the sting of deep regret, guilt, and shame. There are moments of passion, moments of sheer rage, and moments of brokenness and great sorrow. We experience moments of rejection that appear to break us and moments of unconditional acceptance that serve to raise us. We suffer moments of unbearable loss, and we relish in moments of profound gain. Moments bring us tears. Moments bring us laughter. Moments brings us folly and moments bring us wisdom. There are moments I wish I could take back, and moments I wish I could do-over. But those moments were my teachers serving to make all the remaining moments more heart-piercingly beautiful. Diamonds are fashioned by heat. Olives experience a crushing to extract their precious oil. Pearls are sculpted by the irritation from granules of sand. Light is best appreciated after having spent time in the darkness. The rare beauty of something if often derived as a result of its ability to emerge amidst great struggle or having overcome tremendous odds to experience a complete metamorphosis. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but we marvel at it because we know the process by which it obtained its wings. The destination is wonderful, but it's the journey to our blessed promise that makes obtaining the prize so heart-piercingly rewarding. It's the moments along the way that produce the milk and honey that nourish the genuinely seeking soul.
Can you share with us a personal experience about a moment in your life that has shaped you in a positive way? Losing my mother was the hardest blow life ever dealt me. It was one thing to mentally overcome a diagnosis that threatened to take my life. It was another to lose the life of someone I so deeply loved, who was my greatest source of support, wisdom, and friendship. It made practicing mind over matter skills to shrink an inoperable brain tumor seem like a piece of cake. Facing my inner demons, learning how to release fear, and clearing subconscious belief patterns that had produced a lifetime of heartbreak and setbacks seemed like a walk in the park when compared to facing the grief of losing my precious Mom. That moment forced me to dig deeper than any other time previously in my life. It’s in these moments of absolute defeat that we really learn what we are truly made of and what we believe. I felt like a baby bird that had just been pushed out of my comfortable nest and forced to fly solo, and I was given one choice: die or fly. I could either spend the rest of my life focusing on my great lose or spend the rest of my life relishing in what I had gained from the forty-one scared years I had with my Mom. Moments often bring with them decisions, and I had to choose. I chose not to focus on what was missing but on that which remained: love - love for my precious children, remaining family, friends, love for my Creator, and love for me. My Mom always believed in me as a writer. She would be proud of me for having the strength to rise above this tremendous heartbreak and have the courage to press forward. She would not be satisfied with me simply surviving. She would want me to thrive, to be happy, to live a full life, to do good, and to know and express love for as long as I possibly can. I write to honor her legacy. With every Misti Moment I pen, I feel her smiling within the seat of my soul as she witnesses each deposit of gleaned wisdom made for my most precious commodities, my children. In many ways, her death gave me renewed life. Her death motivated me more than ever to make these Misti Moments really count, to make them true, to make them impactful, and be present appreciating and gleaning from the wisdom that this wild adventure called life is here to teach us all.
You originally started writing these special "Moments" down for your kids. What made you want to share them with the world?
I suppose I have always been a teacher at heart. Even when I was a child I would journal about my experiences, and the wisdom learned from them. In the past few years, as I began to share some of the things I had written on social media, I found that people really resonated with the content. Others began to encourage me to put my writings in a book. I have always wanted to live a life of contribution and believe our gifts are instruments that can be used to help heal the world. Our experiences in life become a wellspring of wisdom, and my children have been the source of inspiration for me to pour all the treasure collected along my journey into anyone hungry to receive it. I believe wisdom is the most valuable tool we can share with the world, and I feel compelled to do my part of humbly sharing mine, starting with my precious three (Riley, Jack, and Kate).
Are you working on another book? Will this be a series? I currently have about three books that I am putting together as well as others bubbling inside of me waiting for their appointed season to spring forth. I am writing continuously. It stems from the overflow of my heart; thus, Misti Moments will most definitely be a series. It is a constant continuation of the insight life is so graciously and abundantly granting us through these various moments we experience as a result of life's plethora of themes. Each book in the series will have its own theme all centrally focused around helping to further ignite within the heart of every reader a profound stirring of meaningful purpose, belief, perseverance, courage, authenticity, divinity, and most of all love.
Life is a series of moments. With courage, authenticity, and a commitment to her continually evolving spiritual path, author, inspirational speaker, and spiritual teacher, Misti Rains, has gathered a collection of wisdom gleaned from various moments throughout her life.
Misti Moments will fall as a refreshing rain to water the dry places of the soul and provide a fresh dew upon the human heart. These soul stirring thoughts are rare gems that provide an intimate and powerful glimpse into lessons gleaned from life’s most heart-piercing themes. These short essays will help the reader face the circumstances of their life with more purpose, intention, gratitude, awe, and an eagle’s eye view of what the various moments they encounter throughout their life are truly there to teach them. The spiritual teachings in Misti Moments are prolific writings as well as genuine pieces of divine, higher truths that will serve to awaken, uplift, and heal the spirit. Her stories and universal lessons provide readers with the framework for living the truest, most authentic, and happiest versions of themselves. Misti Moments will serve to awaken and strengthen the power that lies within the human spirit to overcome any obstacle by fully connecting with their Divine Source. Misti Moments are laced in kindness, warmth, and a heart-gripping pull towards all that one truly is: towards home, towards freedom, towards love. The moments Misti Rains shares in her much anticipated first book release will leave you profoundly touched and wanting to experience them over and over! Feel the rain, relish in the morning mist, and dance beneath the wisdom drops you will find drenching the pages of this book!
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