Donna Miesbach

I have been on a spiritual path all my life. I was first introduced to meditation when I was seventeen. I knew this was an important tool, but I wanted to go deeper than that particular method allowed, so my search began. I attended workshops and classes, read books and tried every form of meditation I could find, to no avail. Then in 1994, my life changed dramatically. My husband died very suddenly. Soon after that, I lost both parents, too. They say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. This student was certainly ready. About a year after my husband’s sudden death, I learned about Dr. Deepak Chopra and his teachings. It was like finding the light at the end of the tunnel. I took meditation training from Dr. Chopra and began attending his courses. They fed my deep roots and made such a difference in my life that I committed to being certified both in meditation and yoga so I could share these wonderful practices with others. I have studied with Deepak and also Roger Gabriel both here and in India. I also studied sound healing with Jonathan Goldman, and remote viewing with Dr. David Morehouse, having completed all five levels of his training. As my teaching became established, doors began opening that allowed me to teach meditation to at risk youth. Then another door opened and I found myself working with Playmakers Mentoring Foundation, a Sacramento-based outreach. Together with their Executive Director, we wrote a book and then opened a chapter here in Omaha. In addition to my work with Playmakers, I continue to teach meditation in the Omaha NE area, offering both private and group instruction. I also hold group meditations and programs five times a year, and speak to groups on various aspects of spirituality upon request. It has been an amazing journey, one I never could have anticipated. I didn’t know it then, but I know now that it is possible to get to the other side of grief, and that is what my book, “From Grief to Joy, A Journey Back to Life & Living,” is all about.

Articles:

Gaining Wisdom: Keep Trusting in the Process

Recovering from a loss is a tough road and the only way to get through it is one step at a time. Even when it seems like we aren’t making progress, actually we are. If you look back to the time of your loss, you’ll see how you have made progress. We just don’t see it from day to day. Months from now when you look back to this time, you’ll see how much farther you’ve come. It takes a lot of deep breaths to get from here to there, but with each and every breath, you are just that […]

Learning Acceptance During Loss and Change

Change and transformation are a necessary part of life. Until we are willing to enter into the process with our whole heart, we cannot really let go of the past. The new emerges out of the old. Truly, our pain and suffering, our heartache and our anguish, do mold and shape us in wonderful ways if we but allow them to expand our thinking and our horizons. It is through these teachers that we become more. It is through these changes that we build upon the past and emerge with deeper insight, greater vision, and even a clearer sense of […]

Re-Claiming Joy After Loss

When my husband and I first found each other, we experienced a joy unlike any we had ever known before. Many was the time we just stood in awe looking at each other, wondering how the miracle had ever happened. What we didn’t know then, and what took me many years to learn after he had passed on, was that joy is our true nature. If that is so, then how do we re-claim what is inherently within us? Seeking joy when in the throes of grief would be like reaching for the moon. At least it was for me. […]

Embracing a Paradox: Can Life End?

It seems to me that death is a paradox, for while it appears that life has ended, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the body dies, but our spirit does not. In fact, our spirit cannot die, because the spirit is eternal. Since life cannot end, neither do our relationships. In fact, the scope of those relationships can be much greater now that they reach beyond the seen to the unseen. There were so many “firsts” after my husband died, but the one thing that was constant was the sense of his loving presence. It just felt as […]

Grief Requires Spiritual Attention

Moments of crisis have a way of bringing our focus into stark relief. They get our attention. They force us to plumb our spiritual depths. They put on the brakes and make us look at what life is really all about. Perhaps it is not this way for everyone, but that is how it has been for me. My spiritual life and my working life have always walked hand in hand. Even though there were times when one was more in the forefront than the other, they have always been like two sides of a coin, but my husbands sudden […]

After the Loneliness, Solitude and Love

In so many ways, losing a loved one changes things forever. Those special relationships can never be replaced, yet even though it feels as though we have suffered a great loss, our loved ones are still so much a part of the fabric of our lives and of who we are. We’ll always have them, whether we can see them physically or not. The void we feel after such a loss is there for a reason. It’s giving us the time we need to work through our loss, and if we hang in there, eventually that feeling of loneliness will […]

Getting Through Special Occasions

I will never forget how difficult it was to get through all the special occasions after my husband died. There were just so many “firsts,” whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, new babies being born, and Memorial Day. Whatever the occasion was, it was hard. What I learned from that was you just have to do what you need to do to get yourself through it. For example, it had been our Memorial Day tradition to drive 50 miles to the cemetery where my husband’s family graves were. We did that every single year, rain or shine, but on that first Memorial […]

Widow Learns Where To Go From Here

Even though I’d heard the expression, “Whenever a door closes, a window always opens,” I didn’t see how that could apply to my life after losing my husband, but it did. Then, not long after my husband died, I lost both of my parents, too. I was just feeling so lost, with no sense of direction. Not knowing what else to do, I started asking, “What do You want me to do now?” The first door that opened was the opportunity to study with Dr. Deepak Chopra and other highly recognized teachers. Those studies led to my certifications for teaching […]

Oklahoma Emotions: Let Your Inner Wisdom Guide You

The shock of major events, such as the Oklahoma tornado or the Boston bombing, can be overwhelming, even when we are miles away from the event. The anger, shock, grief we feel for our fellow humans rock our boat like great waves on the ocean. Those waves are actually huge emotional energy surges, and they well up within us because we don’t know how to wrap ourselves around what has happened. The event is just too big to comprehend. Dr. Deepak Chopra suggests that at such times you focus your attention on your heart and just be with what you’re […]

After Oklahoma

When unexplainable things happen, as they did in Oklahoma this week, it would be easy to be angry, or even afraid, but anger and fear come from darkness, and what we need now is light. So let’s keep holding the light we have come to know and cherish so much. Let’s send out the light and it will find all those who need it. In difficult times, it may seem there is nothing we can really do to make a difference, but that is not true. We can stand in the light, and we can hold that light for others. […]

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