You Are God’s Unique Favorite!
The friendship between your soul and God is the only one of its kind - so rare and exquisite that Jesus asks:
“Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
God finds you both loveable and likeable – delightfully endearing, just as you are right now.
No need to fix that stray hair or straighten your posture! Don’t glance into a mirror to see if you agree! Nope … Just smile! Breathe. He finds you irresistible exactly as you are this very minute.
Here’s what God says about you:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)
Maybe you have always known this. But chances are, you have not...
… well, not in an experiential way anyway..
Most of us struggle to internalize a sense of beloved-ness, yet feeling loved makes all the difference!
How we feel about ourselves is how we imagine God feels about us.
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How we see ourselves is how we imagine God sees us.
So, how do you see yourself? Could you use some help in showing up for yourself with more warmth, kindness, acceptance, and compassionate support? The way God does?
It would be my joy to help you cultivate a mindset of self-compassion so you can internalize God’s love in a felt way. Seeing yourself as God sees you, is directly correlated to seeing God as He truly is - warm, affectionate and kind.
It would be my honor to accompany you on your spiritual journey.
DO ANY (OR ALL) OF THESE
Sound Like You?
You are harder on yourself than anyone else.
You always feel you should do better, look better, and accomplish more. Somehow you feel you are simultaneously ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ in your relationships. How can this be when you are trying so hard? Your inner critic is quick to point out your shortcomings while raising the bar of excellence ever higher. You wish others would give you the same emotional support that you give them.
You are tired. So tired.
You have faithfully cared and served - your family, your employer, your community, your church. People have been “people-y” which has cost you in pain and burn-out. The spiritual practices that once brought you joy, no longer do. God seems absent. Obscurity clouds your vision. You hear yourself wondering: Why is God ignoring me? Does He care about me at all? Is God even real? And if so, where is He?
You long to be closer to God – to go deeper into Him.
You know there is more to be experienced in the spiritual life and you want a safe place to explore your desires. You savor the treasured dreams tucked away inside your heart, wondering: Are these from God? Could my dream become a reality? Is this the time to act? How do I know God is speaking? How do I live into God’s dream for me? Might I be called to something new?
As a Spiritual Director and Self-Compassion Coach, I welcome you!
Your story is sacred. Your unique relationship with God is too.
Let’s sit together under the Loving Gaze and lean into God’s intentions for you.
Ways I Would Be Honored to Support You
Spiritual Direction
“I am out with lanterns looking for myself.”
~ Emily Dickinson
A spiritual director accompanies an explorer, holding the lantern through narrow caves of the Dark Night; offering cups of water in the dry desert of Disorientation and Doubt; and providing compass and map in the wilderness of Discernment and Decision.
The path through each of these terrains on the spiritual journey takes you ever deeper into intimacy with Jesus. All the while, your soul is widening to receive the Generous Love that is already coming for you.
Sometimes it takes a compassionate co-traveler to help us recognize signposts along the way and remind us to pause and notice Beauty in ourselves that we had not seen. I would love to travel with you.
“When we are not afraid to enter into our own center and to concentrate on the stirrings of our own soul, we come to know that being alive means being loved.”
~ Henri Nouwen
Self-Compassion Coaching
"A moment of self-compassion could change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.”
~ Christopher Germer
Self-compassion opens our hearts. It gentles us and makes us more receptive to the compassion of others, including God. Mindfulness allows us to cultivate awareness of what we are thinking and feeling in a given moment so that we can support ourselves with kindness and strength.
Research indicates the self-compassion increases motivation, productivity, resilience, optimism, curiosity, and connectedness. It is linked to a decrease in anxiety, depression, rumination, fear of failure, and shame. Self-compassion plays a role in healing trauma and in forming secure attachments with others and with God.
Applying principles developed by Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer, you can safely avoid self-centeredness and self-indulgence while caring for yourself with kindness and support – the same compassion that Jesus wishes for you and is extending even now. Through strategies such as Immanuel Journaling and Thought Rhyming, you will experience God’s compassion.
“Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."
~ Proverbs 16:24
Carey Cruz
SELF-COMPASSION COACH SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Welcome! I’m Carey. A bit about me…
If it is true, as Anne Lamott says, that “We are all the ages we have ever been,”
then I am …
… the little girl picking wild violets on the hot West African plain as she wonders and wanders behind her house. She taught me to notice beauty, honor it, even rescue it.
… the courageous, yet heart-broken six-year-old, clutching suitcase and Kleenex for the 500-mile train ride to boarding school. Sent. Separated. Staying. She taught me the amazing strength of the human spirit. She knows that some stories take a lifetime to tell and storytelling is sacred and healing.
… the college girl, landing in America then bouncing around between three colleges, until finally earning a B.A. and teaching credential from Biola University. And then an M.A. in Education from California State University, Fullerton. She taught me that life paths can be hard to discern – that there is often more than one right answer.
… all the ages of my 30s, 40s, and 50s - the working years of public-school teaching, raising three kids, volunteering in schools and community, working on church staffs at three churches and private home tutor. These are the ages that taught me presence - the hospitality of listening to people and to life. That wisdom is found in the most serendipitous places.
… the disillusioned, doubting 45-year-old wondering where God was hiding now, why he wasn’t answering calls. Then suddenly, ironically hearing: “Practice speaking kindly to yourself. Then you will find Me. My voice is gentle.” She taught me that God’s compassionate voice is often heard through our own inner voice. She set me on a quest for a new vocation – this one!
I am all the ages I have been which now includes three years becoming certificated in the Art of Spiritual Direction from Loyola Marymount University (Center for Spiritual Development/The Sisters of St Joseph of Orange). And over one hundred hours of training from the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer).
And today, I am honored to accompany you on this journey of gentleness as you internalize the love of God for all the ages you have been and still are.
MY FREE GIFT TO YOU
Prayer with a Poem – A Compassionate Exchange
Why wait to get started? An ocean of compassion is available to you. Come on and dip in! Please enjoy this poem and compassionate prayer experience created with you in mind.
It’s my gift to you and comes with a prayer that you would know Kindness today.
