Apr 15, 2018
In this episode, Sara talks with Eva Cruz Pena about
her journey from nursing to ministry to counseling and eventually
life coaching. Eva shares how she connects with her
intuition, follows her heart and "lives whole, piece by
piece." Eva coaches professional and entrepreneurial
women to achieve the creative dream that burns deep within them so
they can live the full expression of themselves, show up fully in
the world and connect to their power and creative source.
Sara and Eva discuss:
- How they met
- Eva's early desires to be a flight attendant
- Listen to her mom and going to university
- Having a hard time deciding what to study
- Going to nursing school
- Working at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
- The ups and downs of her nursing profession
- Feeling like something was missing
- Going back to school for a Masters in Theology
- Moving to Portland
- Pursuing a Masters in Counseling
- Healing herself through becoming a counselor
- Her growing restlessness and lack of satisfaction
- Looking very successful on the outside
- Being a pastor
- Experiencing a crisis of faith and not belonging
- Her breakdown to breakthrough moment
- Wise words from her psychiatrist
- Getting certified as a life coach
- Realizing what was missing from her life
- Reintegrating the pieces of herself that she'd left behind
- The freedom to get paid for who she is
- The ways that life coaching incorporates her knowledge and experience in nursing, theology and counseling
- How she intuits the "right choice" to make for her
- Feeling empowered to use her voice
- Feeling expansive and peaceful
- The power of visualizations
- Going to school while working and being a mom
- Always wondering: is this it?
- The moment she knew life coaching was "it"
- Never questioning herself
- Pushback from others in her career transitions
- Not getting sucked into people pleasing
- Other projects that she's working on like painting and her Courageous Malas
- Energy medicine
- Her guiding principle: "live whole, piece by piece"
- Her role models:
- The collective of women to make change in the world right now!
- Oprah
- Brené Brown
- Marie Forleo
- Danielle LaPorte
- Maya Angelou
- Feroshia Knight of Coach Training World
- Eva's one piece of advice to the listener
Eva's full bio:
As a
nurse, turned mom, turned theologian, turned Air Force chaplain,
turned psychotherapist, turned pastor, turned
businesswoman and life coach, Eva Cruz Pena has
had quite the journey. This journey prepared her with a solid
foundation to coach others become the best version of
themselves. Eva has a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from
the University of Puerto Rico and worked as a hematology and
Post-Partum nurse at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota. She has a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Arts
in Counseling from Multnomah University. She served in the Air
Force Reserves as chaplain, and worked in the Multnomah Counseling
Center as counseling intern and as Pastor of Women's Formation at
Imago Dei Community. After completing her Whole Person
Coaching Certification at Coach Training World in Portland, Oregon,
she worked as an Executive Coaching and Leadership
Consultant at V2A Solutions in Oregon. Today, Eva coaches
professional and entrepreneurial women to achieve the creative
dream that burns deep within them so they can live the full
expression of themselves, show up fully in the world and connect to
their heart’s truth, power and creative
source. She currently resides in Rochester, Minnesota
with her husband, two daughters and their Australian
labradoodle.