We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cinder Shine Ernst. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cinder Shine below.
Cinder Shine , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I get it from the storms I’ve stood in.
From the mornings I woke up in pain and still chose to smile.
From my mom who taught me to keep dancing.
From years of coaching others to move with joy in their bodies that aren’t always easy to live in.
From music that finds me when words fall short.
From the rainbow that shows up after the hurricane—and sometimes during.
I get it from loving people deeply. From being cracked open by cancer. From deciding, over and over, that life is still beautiful. Still worth thinking about
I get it from choosing to be Cinder Shine, even on days I feel like ashes
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Cindershine creates spaces where healing, humor, and heartache can sing together. Through storytelling, music, and lived wisdom, she helps people feel seen in their struggles—and lifted by their own light.
As a speaker, author and musician, she blends the raw with the radiant. Showing how resilience isn’t about being tough, it’s about being tender, true, and still choosing Joy.
What’s new with cinder shine
Real resilience. Rainbow soul. Radiant storytelling.
New book: TERMINALLY SMILING
Cinder shine Ernst’s powerful second book is here. Terminally Smiling is a deeply honest, joy soaked journey through life, death, love, cancer, and finding light—even on the hardest days. Now available in print, digital and narrated audible edition. Complete with original music woven into the story.
New song: FEEL LIKE A RAINBOW
An answer for anyone who’s ever felt knocked down but not knocked out. “I feel like a rainbow up in the sky looking at hurricane right in the eye ”
Available now on all major streaming platforms. Perfect for dancing in the kitchen or crying in the car.
Live event: TERMINALLY SMILING HOUSE READING AND CONCERT
Part book reading, part concert, part heart-healing gathering. Cinder shine is bringing her story and songs in the living rooms, backyards, book stores, and zoom screens. Now booking 2025 events
Speaking and workshops. Now offering talks and workshops including:
How to feel like a rainbow on the hurricane days
Rainbow Resilience
Smiling Anyway: living honestly through hard things
Perfect for wellness events, women’s gatherings, cancer communities, and creative spaces
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
SELF-KINDNESS
It’s easy to be hard on yourself when your body hurts, when life isn’t fair, or when you can’t keep up. But self-kindness changed everything for me. Let me rest without guilt, try again without shame, and even smile through the tears.
Advice? Talk to yourself the way you would talk to a beloved friend. Every time. Especially on the hard days. That voice becomes your home
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Whether it’s songwriting, journaling, or just humming a tun in the shower–creativity gave me a way to process pain, celebrate joy, and connect with others. My story became a song. My scars became art.
Advice? Create even when it feels messy. Especially then. You don’t have to be good at it–you just have to be YOU in it.
CHOOSING TO SHINE ANYWAY
This isn’t about false or toxic positivity. It’s about choosing to shine with the cracks, the diagnosis, the grief. It’s a choice I’ve made again and again: to smile. Not because life is easy, but because I’m still here.
Advice? Don’t wait to feel perfect before you show up with light. Shine with what you’ve got. The world needs it–and so do you
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Are you a person or an organization who resonates with the message of terminally smiling? Then let’s connect.
AUTHORS, COACHES, AND STORYTELLERS. if you work with people around healing, identity, resilience, or creativity, let’s build something! An event, a podcast a retreat.
ADVOCATES, NONPROFITS, AND WELLNESS COMMUNITIES especially cancer support networks, chronic illness groups, body positive communities, and mental health advocates. I bring talks, songs, and heart centered connection
EVENT HOSTS AND PODCAST CREATORS want guests who brings truth, humor, music, and meaning? I’m here for real conversations and uplifting spaces
DREAMERS AND DOERS
You don’t need a formal title, just a heart aligned with this kind of honest joy and soulful resilience.
LET’S CONNECT if you’re reading this and feel the call to collaborate, I’d love to hear from you. Email me shine@cindershine.com or message me on Instagram.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Cindershine.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/cinder_shine_ernst
- Facebook: Facebook.com/cinder. shine. ernst
- Youtube: Cinder Ernst
Image Credits
Etech photo
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
