May 5, 2026

She Spent Decades “Bartering for Belonging” — Here’s What It Cost Her

She Spent Decades “Bartering for Belonging” — Here’s What It Cost Her
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What if your entire life was built on a lie you didn’t even know you believed?

In this deeply emotional and revealing conversation, Dr. Carla Rotering shares the hidden story that shaped decades of her life — a belief formed at just five years old that she didn’t belong on this planet.

From that moment forward, everything became a transaction.

Every achievement. Every act of service. Every sacrifice.

A desperate attempt to earn something that was never missing to begin with.

This episode uncovers the cost of “bartering for belonging” — and the profound journey back to truth, self-love, and liberation.

If you’ve ever felt like you had to prove your worth, hide parts of yourself, or earn your place in the world… this conversation will hit deep.

Key Takeaways:

  • The origin of “bartering for belonging”
  • Childhood beliefs that shape adult identity
  • Living a transactional life to earn worth
  • The fear of being “found out” and disappearing
  • Shame, self-abandonment, and overperformance
  • Losing connection to your true self
  • The illusion of belonging vs. innate belonging
  • A defining spiritual experience after loss
  • The power of saying “yes” to life
  • The courage to be seen and revealed
  • The 7 L’s process for healing and self-discovery
  • Moving from performance to presence
  • Redefining self-love as sacred stewardship
  • Letting go of the need to prove your worth

🔥 Ready to turn your truth into impact? Join the Dream • Build • Write It Webinar — where bold creators transform ideas into movements.

👉 Reserve your free seat now at dreambuildwriteit.com

🔥 Connect with Dr. Carla Rotering and start your journey from performance to presence at drcarlarotering.com

Chapters

00:00 - Untitled

00:18 - Untitled

00:23 - Embracing Reality: The Shift from Dream to Truth

03:03 - The Journey of Belonging: A Personal Reflection

14:35 - The Impact of Loss and Identity

19:55 - The Beginning of Liberation

30:28 - The Journey of Becoming: Embracing Vulnerability and Wisdom

34:31 - Introducing the 7L's Process

42:37 - The Importance of Self-Love and Compassion

43:22 - Invitation to Use the Book

Transcript
Kellan Fluckiger

Welcome to the show. Tired of the hype about living a dream? It's time for truth.This is the place for tools, power, and real talk, so you can create the life you dream and deserve your ultimate life. Subscribe, share, create. You have infinite power.Hello, and welcome to this episode of your ultimate life, the podcast created to help you live a life of purpose, prosperity, and joy by using your life experience, your gifts, your divine nature, and everything else that's handled, handed, and handled by you and to you to create a life that you love every day. I have a special guest today, Dr. Carla Rodering. Carla, welcome to the show.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Thank you.

Kellan Fluckiger

So you've been on here before some time ago, and we had fun. So. And you're back this time.This time we have a real special thing that we're talking mostly about, but the most important thing really isn't even the book that we'll talk about in a minute and I'll ask you about first. But it is the manifestation. The book is another manifestation of a choice that you have made.And I can say this because I know this about you, to add good to the world with. With fearlessness, with courage, with joy, with love, to. To express truths that you have learned. So thanks for being here.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Oh, thank you, Kellen. I'm actually really moved by your words, and I'm.I'm also really grateful to be here again with you and for your willingness to do this work which spans the breadth of the human experience and really invites us into considerations that we might not have ever imagined before.

Kellan Fluckiger

Well, good. Thank you. All right, so let's get started. You have just finished the book, and it will be published soon.Now, this episode's going to be out in a little while still, so it'll be a lot closer to publication or may already be published by the time this comes out. And that's why we're doing it now. So tell us about. Not just name and title and topic and so forth, but the journey, the purpose, the.The deep soul movements and currents that have taken place that have caused you to bring this piece of precious energy forth.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. So everyone has a personal story.And my personal story probably reflects at least an innate inquiry that we sort of land on the planet with, which is, how do I belong here? Do I belong here? Will the world show me how I belong here? Or is there something different that confirms, you know, my.My right to be on the planet and. And to continue to unfold my human experience? And so part of my belief system is that.That we all come with a Social purpose and that life shows us what our curriculum is and the details of our lives and the circumstances and events and all of those things can all be used as curriculum for our growth and expansion.But, but where we start, where I started and I suspect where we all really start is this place of sort of unconscious, just sort of being on the earth and trying to figure out what our place of belonging is. I had some, I had some unique experiences and unique details of my life that would have me question whether I was meant to be here or not.And, and some of that was really. I had parents who kind of flew in the face of convention.I had a, an Irish Catholic mother and a Muslim Arabic father in the middle of North Dakota populated by Scandinavian Lutherans. And so all of that seemed a little bit odd.And then, and then, and this story is in the book, but then a sentinel event in which my grandmother, who was really held in this little container of fear and an incredibly deep yearning to belong somewhere in the, on the earth, which for her translated in, into a fierce belief in Catholicism, decided to tell me that because of my parents and their love for one another and their breaking with the traditions of their tribes through marrying one another, had committed an unpardonable infraction. And that because of that there was no salvation for me. So I was about five when that happened.Really stepped forward out of that experience with the belief that there was some mean spirited God that placed me on the planet without granting me belonging, belongership. And then I was going to have to get pretty creative about how I was in the world so that I could trick people into believing that I belonged here.And I lived like that for decades, for decades. So lived this very transactional life about if I give this, then can I be affirmed? If I do even more, can my presence on the earth be confirmed?If I lay myself down and utter sacrifice, will that be enough for the absolution that I'm longing for, for this infraction that I didn't even know I committed. Now that's kind of a big drama story around this. It happened to me when I was about five years old.But I think we all sort of get some indicators that there's something that we have to do, some gyration that we have to be in with the world to prove our belongership. And, and we continue to look for that out in the world, never recognizing that it already resides within us that we are home. Always.

Kellan Fluckiger

Tell me, tell me a little bit more about this tricking thing. You use that interesting Word. And it makes, you know, just stuck there with me that you had to trick people.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Like when, when did, do you even remember when the first time was?Like when you actually thought that consciously I gotta trick people or is that something that you have attached as a thing later in thinking back on it or was that apparent for you at the time?

Dr. Carla Rotering

It was, it was actually, you know, I was five. So I have five year old language.

Kellan Fluckiger

Well, yeah, but I mean even in five years, 10, 15, any of those.

Dr. Carla Rotering

So, so, so I absolutely lutely remember thinking God tricked me.

Kellan Fluckiger

Okay.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Tricked me. Because whoever this God was because we didn't talk about God much in, at that time in my home. Because God was mad at everybody. Right.

Kellan Fluckiger

You know? Right, right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

God was mad at my dad, the Catholic God was mad at my mom. And, and just.But whatever this God was, and I use a little, little G when I talk about this, had tricked me because he put me someplace that I didn't belong and I didn't know what to do. And the only thing I could think of was I'll trick you right back.

Kellan Fluckiger

Well, not only trick you, but put you in a place where you didn't belong and that you can't do anything about.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah, like what am I about this? Yeah, what am I going to do about this?But I really remember thinking I'm going to have to be tricky because tricking people was a word that we used when I was five.

Kellan Fluckiger

Okay, all right, all right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

But I, but it, but it also has continued to walk with me because that understanding that I formed at that age still resonates with me. That's, that's really the experience that I had. Yeah. Wow.

Kellan Fluckiger

Okay, so either born or of necessity become required to be a trickster.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yes.

Kellan Fluckiger

Then how did that play out? That that is a seminal event and some, that something like that could cost somebody a lifetime of therapy bills, you know, that sort of thing.But anyway, so continue a little bit as tell the story before you, before we get to the part of unveiling the book part, but tell a little bit more story.

Dr. Carla Rotering

So I mentioned at least briefly that, that like even, even that little girl life. Right, even that little girl life, everything became a barter for me. Everything became transactional for me.I remember even when I played music, even back then, and I remember lining up three little pieces of candy on the piano and if I played the piece perfectly, then I got to have a piece of candy.So everything about my doing became evidence for me that I was being the right person and I would get Rewarded for that, but I had to give a lot for that reward. And then as time went by, you know, that translates into more mature iterations of giving over.Giving over responsibility, giving away aspects of myself, or they're standing in denial of aspects of myself that I didn't think would be palatable or acceptable. And really having this strong fear that if I was discovered, I would just vanish, that I would just. There would be nothing left of me.And, you know, these days, I call that shame. That you could literally collapse into shame so completely, there would be nothing left of me. And.And those are the kinds of strong forces that moved me into a transactional life, you know, bartering for everything. I, I.When I was in high school, I was named the most active member of the senior class because the more I did, and the better I did it, the more secure I was in the illusion that I belong.

Kellan Fluckiger

That meant you were busy and didn't know going or coming, obviously.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Well, that's the other piece of this, right, Kellen? And as time goes by, this becomes even more operative.But the more I did out here to please you, to fool you, to not reveal the truth of who I was, the further away I. I became from the truth of who I was, the further separated I be, I became from my essence, you know, that sort of divine essence that accompanies us into this human experience, so that I lost contact with that, with that aspect of myself. I didn't trust myself to make good decisions. I didn't count on myself for wisdom or guidance.Everything that I did was a reaction to the outside world. And yet there was always this voice that wasn't very loud but would not let go of me that tried to convince me of something else.

Kellan Fluckiger

Can you remember, like. And I asked this in these words because this is the words that I used for a. A particular time in life. But do you remember ever feeling like.Or thinking like. Or when is the first time? I don't know who I am. Because you talked about the separation from the behavior, Persona to that divine essence.Did it ever get to articulate, like, I don't know who the frick I am? Did you think that?

Dr. Carla Rotering

Oh, yes.

Kellan Fluckiger

When was the first time?

Dr. Carla Rotering

Oh, yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Stuck you. I don't know who I am.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah, I. You know, there were. Well, probably the first time. Yeah, that. That really penetrated my. My awareness, right. Was my mom died when.When I was in high school. And anything that I thought I knew about the world, which, it.It turns out, wasn't probably very active anyway, but there was a certain There is a certain safety in being within the limits that we understand. Right, right. And within the details that we understand. So my mom got sick and died in about six weeks, in a six week period of time. I'm.I'm certain she was sick longer than that. But. But my experience of it was she got sick, and six weeks later she was dead. And my dad was not a talented parent.And I remember falling asleep thinking, I have no idea.I literally have no idea why I'm here, what has happened, what will happen, what this life is supposed to be about, especially if it can take you away when you're 35 years old for no good reason. And. And all of the little signposts that I used to confirm that there was something familiar in my life seemed to have dissolved.And I remember falling asleep, weeping, having this existential feeling that. That nothing made any sense to me.And I don't think I've ever told you this story, Kellen, but I woke up in the middle of the night to my mother's voice resounding and bouncing off the walls of my bedroom, just vibrating the. The bedroom. And remember sitting up. And as I sat up, I felt myself being lifted and in the palms of a pair of hands.And then those hands just wrapping themselves around me and knowing peace, maybe for the first time in my life, in the throes of all of this grief and angst and confusion and wondering about why would I possibly be here to have that experience of being just lifted in a pair of hands. And I remember falling asleep inside those hands again, soothed, knowing what grace felt like, at peace.And I love to tell you that that persisted from that moment forward. But I was 16. I didn't know. I thought it was weird, you know.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

It's like.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right. Weird.

Dr. Carla Rotering

And. And I thought I might have made it up, you know.

Kellan Fluckiger

Yeah.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Or it might have been a dream.But I diminished the potency of that moment over time and then would have glimpses of that periodically, you know, as I wound my way on this, you know, odd little thing we call the human experience, and would encounter other moments of revelation, an illumination that there was no trap, no cage, no trickster, but it. But by that time, it was in direct conflict with my belief system and. And this whole internal dialogue that I created about what was true.And so I just would, like, yeah, okay, like, that doesn't. That doesn't work for me.

Kellan Fluckiger

I want to do something right here, because as people listen to this, and it's your captivating storyteller and the story is powerful. And I want to take little moments as we move through this to help people not do that.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Because it's easy in retrospect.I mean, you know, you've been alive for a few minutes now, so, you know, and you're telling this with the grace and power of hindsight and with a much, you know, rich and deeper connection with the source of all that comfort and hands and inspiration and whispers and ideas and thoughts and feelings. But there's going to be people that hear this that are like, yeah, yeah. And then they dismiss it also.And I want to take just a moment in your words for you to encourage those who listen to say yes.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. Yeah. So the moment of yes. Is. Is the beginning of liberation. And one of the.One of the problems, one of the painful pieces of bartering for belonging or believing that we don't belong is that we believe we're in isolation. We believe that we're alone. Right. We believe that there's a separation not just from our inner selves, but from what the.What the world wants to give us. So if I look back at that time and wonder what might have.Have supported me in seeing there was a yes available, the first thing that comes to mind for me, Kelan, is to not be alone, to actually. To actually reach out into the spaces where people could hold you with their caring and tenderness as you're. As you find your way to that yes.So I navigated that all by myself. I had priests and doctors and family members and friends and. And even an uncle who was an incredible wisdom leader. But.But I was unwilling to be revealed, so I withheld the space that was suffering the most. And part of it is. Part of that is to have courage.Have the courage to say out loud that thing that has become your operating system in some safe space where you're not alone.

Kellan Fluckiger

Wonderful. Thank you. It's just one. I. You know, I can say it, but I want you to say it from the. From the point of view of that and everybody.We all know that life's difficulties ruin us or refine us, and we can make those choices, but that the encouragement to say yes, to reach out and to be open. We're so stuck on this isolation thing anyway, so. So.So tell me a little bit more and how you got to, like, all of the details of stuff are in the book, which I think it's time that we tell the name of the book. So what's the book? And what have you caused? Like, what caused you to write it? And what do you hope happens in the world as you bring this.And I've read it, so I get to say this, this great ball of light behind my head, like this, this light into the world. Talk a little bit about that.

Dr. Carla Rotering

So the book is called Bartering for Belonging. And I think by now it's probably evident how that came into being. And the truth is, I've been writing for a long, long time.I would capture stories about my life. I happen to work as a physician. I've done that work for 40 years.So I would capture these little stories about what I learned at the bedside, what patience taught me and, and helped me grow my heart and grow my mind and see beyond what was right in front of me. Right. So I'd written for a long time and I, I've talked to you about writing a book.I have a couple of people who have been pestering me about doing that.

Kellan Fluckiger

For a long time. Good for them. Yeah, good for them.

Dr. Carla Rotering

And, and so I felt, yeah, you know, I think, yeah, like be bold.And, and the good news about that is, and you know this because you've written lots of books, that it brings you to the edge of being willing to be revealed. Right?

Kellan Fluckiger

Yeah.

Dr. Carla Rotering

And so for me, part of the coming out of bartering was to come out of hiding. Right. So I really had reached that frontier where I was willing to be seen. Seen without proving myself.So I started looking at all these little stories and I thought, oh, because bartering for belonging was not in my thinking at that time. I, I had a whole different thing and actually started a whole different book. And I. And the thread just showed itself to me.And in fact, when I really began to write Bartering for Belonging, it was on the heels of that revelation that came through reading my own writing and saying, I don't know if I ever saw this like this before. I don't know even now, after all of the decades that I lived in, all of the.All of the growing and learning and loving opportunities that I have gifted myself with. I don't know if I ever really saw this before. I saw it as, oh, a worth issue or a self esteem issue or doing versus being issue.But I don't know until I read my own story that I really recognize what had been operating underneath the surface all along and that, that really speaks to the power of being revealed to yourself.Whether that's through, you know, storytelling, whether it's through counseling, whether it's through coaching, whether it's through writing and journaling, there is a way for us to come home to the Self we've known by heart since we landed on the planet, and. And that self will. Will talk to us. I don't want to sound all lofty, but that. That's really true.

Kellan Fluckiger

It is. And I love. I love your. Your soulful expression of that. And, you know, your willingness to be revealed is like, you get to decide.But one of the things that it seems to me like is, is it is as an encouragement for others to be revealed that you, who describe the difficulty and the convoluted barriers and shields that you put up both internally and externally, not to be revealed for fear of evaporating, have come to a place where you have revealed and you shared the deepest and most intricate and painful at the time experiences in.In terms of revelation, not to say, oh, look at me, but by way of encouragement, because they can look at you, who you are, and say, maybe I can be revealed and I don't have to be isolated and alone.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Is that. Is that part of what we're doing?

Dr. Carla Rotering

Absolutely. I mean, look, the world doesn't need another book of stories, right? I mean, maybe that's fun. Maybe that's cool.Maybe it does need another book of stories.But my intention with the book is to gather this lifetime of evolution and learning and upliftment and I think, wisdom on behalf of what can now come through me into the world. So the days that I'm working on my identity, those days are kind. I'm sort of not placing my time and attention on my personal identity.What I'm really interested in is what is the essence of who I am and what comes through me now and moves out into the world to make a difference. And look, I've always wanted to make a difference.This is just from a different perspective for a different reason, because my life matters in the way that it lifts your life. Right.Two generations from now, my kids are gonna, you know, I. I'm gonna have great, great, great grandchildren who say, didn't we have some little, short great great grandmother who wrote a book or was a doctor or like, my presence on the planet. Right. Will be a memory if I'm lucky. Right.

Kellan Fluckiger

You know, it will be, but I. I just got to throw something in here because most people don't matter very much in terms of what you just said. Memory, or very long, you know, a generation or two, if we're lucky.But those who have done what you have done, I mean, there are people whose names we know because of the impact they've had on others, for better or worse. And the. The circle of those who we influence is determined by our availability, our willingness to share, and the effort we put into sharing it.And sometimes it works and doesn't. But the greatest thing that any of us have to offer, whether it does whatever or not, is that story of our own becoming.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yes.

Kellan Fluckiger

I mean, that's it. Because everything else is a thing we're talking about instead of the truth of our lives.And so what you've offered here is the story of your own becoming and the discoveries along with it. Not written in frustration or negativity or blaming or anything else, but in the tone of wonder and discovery.And I can say that because I've read the book, but it is, and, and I won't. I'm not going to let you say I'm a footnote of a footnote, because that's not actually true. And so I. I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend the. The.The compassion and the wisdom and vision with which you have presented your transition from fearful 5 year old to sage embodiment of love to encourage those, which is everybody a little or a lot, who feel lost, isolated, not valued, and so forth. So that's my two bits on that.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. Thank you for that, Kellen. Yeah, thank you. It is the thing that calls me forward every day, you know, what is the goodness I can place in the world?What can come through me whether I'm remembered or not? And that's the, that's the cool part of that, right? Yeah, that's.That's the non bartering part of that, is that whether anyone or everyone notices doesn't matter. Right?

Kellan Fluckiger

It doesn't. Because you've made the offering and there it is.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. Yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

So. And, And when we walk, you know, those, the.This incredibly messy kind of cobbled path that we walk, something happens to us that's worth sharing if we're willing. If we're willing to hold that as gift, as lesson, as. As a way to lift ourselves and liberate ourselves from our human thinking right into this.

Kellan Fluckiger

Yes.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Evolved space, that, that is acknowledging that we are all connected. So when I contribute something, some, even if I just sit outside and just vibrate with positive energy, I'm giving goodness to the world, right?And the world. And that gets distributed everywhere that it can. So to add goodness is to add goodness to the energy of the whole. And that matters to me.

Kellan Fluckiger

It does. And it does. Add that to the whole and it is clear that it matters to you. So in addition to the story of how you started from where you.Where you began to the person that you are now. You've also distilled in the book some tools and some frameworks, ideas, processes that have come together for you.And, you know, there's 50,000 books on different methods to do whatever.But the neat thing about it is every single one of them is good and right in their way and matters because it is imbued with the energy of truth from your lived experience.So I want you to talk a little bit about what you have so the audience can hear a little bit more about that in addition to the marvelous stories that you have.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Thanks so much. I have this process. It's a spiraled process, and it's called the 7L's process. And that emerged from my lived experience like I am the seven L's.I. I got a degree in spiritual psychology.I've done coaching, I've done all manner of things, and these are the tools that, that I used, whether I had a name for them yet or not, and lived and then came forward in this writing. So this, it's a 7L process, really briefly. They. It starts with look and listen, which is, you know, we.We see what we're looking for, we hear what we're listening for. We look for what confirms usually our worst thoughts about ourselves and the world at large. And, and we. And we bookmark those as true. Right?When we do that, this big world becomes much more limited. And so the second piece of that spiral process is called limit.Limits are really about limiting beliefs, how what we look and listen for begins to limit the field of possibilities for us. And so developing awareness of how we have created our own container, our own fixed position in the world. The next one is called Lean In.And this is tough. This is a tough one because these are the spaces that we avoid, right? The.These are the spaces of discomfort, the places that make us squirm, the places where that make us run for a bowl of ice cream or, you know.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Or Netflix or. Or, you know, a new partner or a new country or something.And so this is really about really moving towards whatever anguish, whatever kind of heart ache we have, even when we're afraid, and then just choosing to be present, right? Just be present and feeling discomfort as though it were a teacher. And I think that's the takeaway from Lean in and then Learn.We've talked about that a little bit, and that's really about, are we willing to guess, gather kind of wisdom from every moment, everything that unfolds in our lives, and use that for our learning and our. And upliftment and growth.Can we use that as our curriculum if we have a unique curriculum here on the earth that none of those things are accidental. Right. And what we make of that really determines the experience that we live in. So that. And then the next one is all they're. All else is lift.And that's really how being able to sort of lift enough to bear witness. Right.Without judgment and seeing our life from a really higher and more caring position, seeing what we're doing, seeing how we're being and really just witnessing. And that's not as easy as it sounds. Nor is that as hard as it sounds.

Kellan Fluckiger

One of the things we do that you know, gets in the way of that is the, the proclivity we have for judgment.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Well yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

You know, we judge everything. And so lifting. Do they deserve it? Do they not deserve it?Or getting angry or blaming because I leaned in and it shouldn't be this hard or shouldn't this and that.I mean we have different types and all kinds of depths of judgment about things and people and God, little G. And all of the rest of it that, that get in the way of following this, this process and of making meaning out of our life. The meaning we make often is not very fun.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. And that's actually something I talk about in the next L which is liberate. And that's really about comparison.Compassion, forgiveness, self forgiveness, forgiveness of judging other people, forgiveness of. For judging God and the traffic. And I, I told you a long time ago, I threatened God with a lawsuit for breach of contract when I was driving one day.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right, right, right, right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

So. And really sort of blessing the ground that we've walked on.Which is my way of talking about gratitude for, for where we've been and how we've arrived wherever we happen to have arrived to. And that's that liberate. And then the final thing is really about self love. The final L is about love.And, and, and I want to be really clear about that. This is not like having a romance with your personality. Right. This is like, oh I'm so cute, I'm in love with myself. That's fine actually.It's just perfectly fine to do that. But this is really about sacred stewardship of the divinity that you are.It's about not being in an argument with the universe, but your worth, your lovability, those are all personality based. This is really the agape love. Right? Yeah.That we easily extend to others and withhold from ourselves as though we are the only Satan being on the planet that doesn't deserve it.

Kellan Fluckiger

Everybody but me. That's such a common disease we get to. We're so willing to make exceptions or provision or forgiveness or something for others.And we live in this thing. Well, if you really knew me, you wouldn't like me, you know, sort of feeling. Right. And so we hide it and we don't love ourselves. And we just.All kinds of iterations and versions of that. And it's not true.

Dr. Carla Rotering

No, it's not true. I mean, it's not true. And that's all, again, based on our personality, the stuff that we didn't. Didn't do and whatever.And we've already talked about that in the self compassion, forgiveness thing. This is a greater love. This is again, a sacred stewardship of your presence on the planet.This is as though you were handed yourself as a child at birth.And it's your responsibility to shepherd that child through this life with love and care and attention and devotion, as though you could hold that child in your hands the whole of your life with the most tender, sacred love you can ever imagine. Right. It's that kind of love. Right. It's not about the fact that, you know, my hands have spots on them now, and I don't think I like that.

Kellan Fluckiger

Right.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Get it fixed or. Boy, I get really cranky if I don't get enough sleep. I should just not be around people. Or sometimes I say really stupid things.Because sometimes I say really stupid things. It's. It's. It. And we. And we are invited to extend that kind of love to ourselves also. But the love that I'm talking out about is that big love.

Kellan Fluckiger

Yeah. That is so important as you. As you think about, you know, the books coming out, bartering for belonging.After you see this, it'll either already be out or out pretty soon.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah.

Kellan Fluckiger

Where I have two questions. One, what do you hope or extend to people as an invitation who read this book? That's the first thing.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah. So. So what I hope is that people don't just read this book.

Kellan Fluckiger

Okay. Yeah.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Because it's embedded with processes, with reflections. So what I hope is that. That you move through the book slowly, that.That you sit with the warps, but also sit with those journal prompts and exercises that are provided throughout the book in earnest understanding that there's a possibility here that you could change your own life. So my hope is you don't just read the book. I hope is that you use the book and that you use that spiral which will continue. You know, we're.We're going to continue to look and listen, we're going to continue to limit ourselves. I mean, those things, we just continue to reenter that spiral wherever we are from from now on, knowing that it will lead us home to ourselves. Right.So that's my, that's my first thing is that it's, it's not a book to read, it's a book to use.

Kellan Fluckiger

The second thing I wanted to ask you is undoubtedly there are going to be people who see this and they want to know more about you or they want to know what the best way is to both find the book or whatever comes next or, you know, to connect with you deeper and more effectively. Where do, where do people do that? How do we do that?

Dr. Carla Rotering

So, so my website and my, and my email, because I'll, I'll respond to emails and I'll respond to the website.The website is just drcarlaroting.com and there'll be information there about the book and the book will be launched and it'll be available on Amazon and other places as well. And my email is Carla Rode Rotoring at Yahoo.No punctuation, no capitals, no anything, just Carlo Rotoringahoo.com or DRCarlar Rottering.com and, and it'll be updated and we'll send out alerts to anybody who, you know, like go to the website and, and fill out that little form that's on the website and we'll make sure you know what's going on with it there.There's, there's a course in progress and a workbook in progress and you know, will be continued opportunities to deepen into this work as time unfolds. And I love to be able to let you know when that happens.

Kellan Fluckiger

So then the assignment is go to drcarlarotoring.com and get on the email list so you can stay up to speed on where things are. Is there a opt in page that I can get on your email list?

Dr. Carla Rotering

Yeah, there's a little, there's a little, I think it's called courageous living thing, but there's a little opt in okay thing too.And, and there will be a little area on the website for the book as we get a little bit closer, but we'll just go ahead and do that soon so that you can just opt into the book part of it if you like.

Kellan Fluckiger

Good.Well, I, and I'm excited because having having a workbook and those kinds of things is, is really in a course is valuable because this is a circular process. It's not one and done. If it was, then the Time she had that feeling when she was 16 would have been the end. Okay, we're good.I had a spiritual awakening. And as you've discovered and.And articulated so well, that's not how it happens for you or anybody else, but the joy that you radiate as you talk about this process and how it has lifted you. Of you as you've moved endless times through this spiral and is. Is both palpable and evident.And so I want to just thank you for taking the time and work to do that discovery and then share it in a vulnerable way with all of us.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Thank you.

Kellan Fluckiger

Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you either thought I would or that you want to say to make sure we know before we get done today?

Dr. Carla Rotering

I would never in a million years presume that I could predict what you would ask me about or say. Being with you is always a surprise. No, just this deep invitation, right?This deep invitation to lay down, you know, what we carry that is so burdensome and such a misunderstanding and be willing to take the first courageous step towards having an outer life that. That reflects your inner reality.

Kellan Fluckiger

I love that.Carla, thank you for sharing your heart, your love, the yearning and the evidence that you have to offer and the book and the program and everything else that's. That is from. From your heart. Thank you.

Dr. Carla Rotering

Thank you, Kellen.

Kellan Fluckiger

I want to encourage you to listen to this and I want you to marinate in it. Carla speaks with a cadence that is not consistent with Hurry up. Get everything done in five minutes. World that we live in today.So take some time when you're walking or even driving or whatever so you can feel the truth, because she speaks truth, and I know that. And certainly go get this book when it comes out, if it's not already. And the workbook and the course and, and.And because it is of great value in the continuing human journey that we have to climb. The mountains of joy, of love, of growth, and of creating your ultimate life. Right here, right now.Your opportunity for massive growth is right in front of you. Every episode gives you practical tips and practices that will change everything.If you want to know more, go to kellenfluetigermedia.com if you want more free tools, go here YourUltimateLife CA. Subscribe Share Stand with your heart in the sky and your feet on the ground. It.