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:

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Going with the Flow

We’re all familiar with the different stages or phases in life – childhood to youth, youth to adulthood, and so on. Those stages could never happen if there wasn’t change ~ every day. Like a flower unfolding, each stage has its beauty and also its challenges. Those constant little changes become part of the rhythm of our daily life and we really don’t think too much about them. It’s the “big” changes that tend to rock our boat. That happened to me when I lost my husband and both parents in a short period of time. Everything changed, seemingly overnight, […]

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Finding a Way to Laugh

Several months after my husband died, something happened that caused me to laugh. I was surprised at how good it felt. It also surprised me when I thought about how long it had been since I had last laughed, so I decided then and there that I would start laughing, even if I had to make a conscious decision to do it. But how to get started? As I thought about it, I knew we had books and magazines with humor in them, so I started raiding the bookshelves, pulling out anything and everything that was funny, and I put […]

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Choosing to be Happy

Life is full of choices. What we don’t always understand is that happiness is a choice, too. It seems strange that being happy would be a choice, but that is one of the things I learned when I was caught up in grief. As chance would have it, I went down to Florida to visit some good friends about eight months after my husband’s sudden death. He and I had planned to do that, so I got up my courage and went by myself. It was in the early part of the year, and while I was there, they decided […]

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Reflections on Letting Go

Grief creeps into our lives in so many ways. Loved ones die, friends or family move away, children grow up and leave home, jobs change, pets die, a treasured possession becomes damaged or lost. And these are just some of the things we must cope with as we live our daily lives. One of the reasons such changes are so difficult is because they are links to the past, to what we know and are comfortable with. Being creatures who prefer comfort, we do not readily welcome change. The past – the “known” – has become our friend. I have […]

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The Paradox of Great Change

When great change comes into our lives, we may feel as though we are in a foreign land. All seems strange and different somehow, and we may feel hesitant or unsure as to how to proceed. To be sure, a door has opened before us, a door that perhaps we may not wish to go through. And yet, we must proceed in one way or another. Life does go on, and so must we. The question, then, becomes – how do we proceed? Always we have a choice, and much depends on how we exercise that prerogative. Change can be […]

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Feeding the Soul through Solitude

In my previous article, we talked about how, over time, loneliness can change into solitude. When we are in the throes of grief, solitude may not feel very comforting, and yet it is through solitude that we can find the peace – and yes, the joy – we are seeking. Solitude opens the door to a deeper, more complete way of being. As we befriend that quiet inner space, we become more at home with ourselves and find inner strengths we may not have known were there. And so it is that we find another way of being where we […]

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You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Grief

I find it difficult to believe that I was 40 years old before I found out that I had a choice about how I thought and how I felt. Up until then, if “A” happened, I automatically did “B.” Yes, I was living on automatic. Then one day a friend of mine said, “You know, you have a choice. You don’t have to get angry when she does that.” Wow! Talk about a light going on! I’d just never thought about it that way. Since then I’ve learned that what we experience in life is actually what we are thinking […]

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Grief Experience Taught One of Life’s Lessons: We Are Accepted

One of the most miraculous experiences for me as I worked through great loss was finding out that we are loved – and accepted – so fully, so completely, that there is nothing left to forgive! This is true for all of us, and that is why I wrote my book, From Grief to Joy – because the challenges I’ve faced are universal. We all have our mountains to climb, both inner and outer. No one is exempt. Life is a school, and what we learn through that school are the lessons we are ready for, things we could not […]

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From Loneliness to Solitude

Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of losing a loved one is the awful sense of having been left alone. The loss of the presence, the personality, the person with whom we had blended so well leaves an acute sense of loneliness. It is easy to feel lost, abandoned even, with no idea where to go. All sense of purpose seems to have evaporated. We feel very much like a ship without a rudder, and the seas do not feel like friendly seas at all. It is hard to keep going, to even try at times like these. Yet […]

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Tuning In To Your Body During Grief

We all have an inner guide, and oftentimes it speaks to us through the signals the body sends us – signals of comfort or discomfort. Author Tom Robbins calls those signals “yuk” and “yum.” So how does that work? Say you’re driving down the street and you aren’t sure which way to go. Listen to your body! Or if you’re in the grocery store and you can’t decide between this product or that one. Listen to your body! As we practice following that signal on the little things, we develop a trust – and a confidence – in their accuracy. […]

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