We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Gilbertson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

“Ripples to Waves to Magic” – Heather Wilde, Hezzie Mae Book Publishing

I’d like to share a story of how small ripples can create a wave of possibility that turns to pure magic:

The Ripples:

In February 2023, a friend sent me an email connecting me with a local author and indie publisher, Heather Wilde. Heather was planning her book launch to celebrate the release of her memoir, “Tumbled” out into the world. At the book launch we hit it off and I agreed to meet up again in a few weeks. When we did, she shared that during the summer she was planning to participate in Sarah Seidelmann’s 100-day Creative Soul Retrieval group as it had been transformative the previous times she’d participated. The premise is simple yet impactful – pick a creative project to do for 15 minutes a day for 100 days, post it in the private Facebook group and see what happens. I was curious and decided to sign up.

My project was to embark on an adventure of being open to enchantment and following inspiration by creating a mini watercolor painting each day for 100 days. I wanted to learn more about watercolor painting; I love words and their meanings; and I find the practice of reflection to be powerful. Therefore, I braided these elements together and called it “Aligned Enchantment.”
Each day, an image would catch my eye and a word would resonate. These became the day’s theme which I paired with the definition and origin of the word and three related reflective questions.

Some days, my project flowed quickly and easily; other days, inspiration was more elusive, and it felt like a stretch to pull it all together. Sometimes, the word would come first. Other times, the image became crystal clear, or a question would surface for me to ponder. Even though I initially planned to complete my project in the morning, these clues would emerge over the course of the day as I noticed the beauty around me and listened for words that resonated during conversations. As much as I wanted to confine this project into a set time and space, inspiration wanted more freedom and enchantment refused to be rushed.

Along the way, I worried I had taken on more than I could handle as a busy mom with a full time job as I struggled to fit it in and fell behind posting daily. Nearly every ten days, I noticed the urge to switch gears and change the project by dropping the word, outline of the painting, or etymology and reflection questions. However, each time I sat with these thoughts long enough, a whisper of a word or inkling of an image would encourage me to stick with it. Curiosity invited me to wonder what the collective result would be as I continued to add to this over the summer. So I carried on.

The Wave:
Once I reached 100 days, I felt proud of the journey I took and glad I stuck with it. I also had a lingering sense that it wasn’t quite done. On the 100th day I wrote: “I’m not sure what it is yet, but it feels like there’s a few more steps to fully complete this project.”

However, I didn’t do anything with it for two months. It wasn’t until early November when I sat with my mini watercolors, reflected on the lessons and wondered how I might gather them all in one place. As I did this, I knew I needed to connect with Heather again to brainstorm ideas for pulling these together. When the two of us met later that month, it became clear that this was meant to be a journal. We got to work and published “Aligned Enchantment: 100-day Self-Reflection Journal” in March of 2024.

Pure Magic:

Now, here we are a year later and it seems this was the plan all along. I’m extremely grateful to my friend for sending that initial email that started this ripple effect of connection and possibilities. I’m also thankful for that quiet voice inside that urged me to slow down, sit with the pieces, and gather them up into a complete collection.

As for launching “Aligned Enchantment” out into the world, I’ve been proceeding one step at a time and am trusting the unfolding. This has been a key lesson throughout this project. Heather has been an immensely helpful guide and has gathered up wisdom from other authors to help “Sell your Book: Not Your Soul.”

Aligned Enchantment is an opportunity to journal for 100-days and beyond about the things that matter most to you. The things that light you up and make you feel alive. It provides a space to imagine, wonder, and reflect. It helps you set intentions for how you want to be today and what you want your impact to be in the future.

My greatest hope for this journal is that it allows your inner wisdom to emerge. I hope you notice any inklings of insights arise, you feel any glimpses of soul shimmers, and that you follow the subtle hints of curiosity. I have found that intuition, enchantment, and inspiration hang out in these seemingly insignificant places. The extraordinary is hidden in the ordinary, not just in the grand gestures or the big, bold moves.

I share this story to say: please don’t underestimate the power of one small action as it can set off a ripple effect that creates a wave of possibilities that results in pure magic.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the human experience and exploring personal development. I have a love of learning and have earned my undergraduate degree in Community Health Education with a minor in Psychology and went on to complete a Masters of Education with a graduate minor in Integrative Therapies and Healing Practices. I am a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach, a certified Intrinsic Coach, an A.C.E certified personal trainer, and a mindfulness facilitator. I’m grateful to get to share my life in Northern Minnesota with my husband, three kids, three dogs, and two cats.

In early 2022, we lost someone important to us. At his memorial service, they talked about how he was gone too soon, but lived a life full of love and joy as he pursued his dreams. One of those dreams fulfilled was starting a company with my husband and another friend. His family shared that one of the best ways to honor his life was for everyone to live their lives to the fullest, follow their dreams, and pursue their passions.

At that moment, I knew that creating “Art of Presence” was something I needed to take action on. A dream of being an author and artist has long lived in my heart and mind but I was too busy and worried to make it reality.

When you lose someone, you are reminded how special and fragile life is.

It brings up big questions like:
✨ What/Who is important to you?
✨ How do you want to live?
✨ What makes you feel alive?
✨ What are you longing to do?

Life shifting events of loss and crisis can bring both overwhelm and clarity. Overwhelming emotions and an untethered feeling and also crystal clear priorities about what really matters.

I don’t want to miss my life and I don’t want others to miss theirs either.
In a world full of noisy distractions, I worry that we are losing touch with our natural ability to be present and hear the whispers from our intuition.

My mission is to inspire others to practice the art of presence and support whole person wellbeing by aligning intention, attention, attitude, action, and impact through coaching, classes, and creativity.

I knew Art of Presence needed to be multidimensional, interconnected, and expansive, like we all are. As it unfolds, I’m creating space and time for developing opportunities for wellbeing coaching, classes, and retreats. I continue to share my writing and art and invite others to follow curiosity, inspiration and intuition to see what emerges.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I am working to unlearn the notion that we each have one unique purpose on this planet.

At a recent weekend workshop about creativity and healing with Elizabeth Gilbert and Martha Beck, Liz outlined how this one idea leads to a lot of anxiety.

Liz shared that in our western culture we are taught the idea that we each are born with one unique purpose and that our duty in life is to find that purpose. Ideally we find it at a young age and go to school to gain the highest level of achievement with it, then find a way to monetize it. We think it must not only support us financially, but also help others. Not only must it make a difference, but it must leave a lasting legacy that extends beyond our lifetime. This one notion of having one singular purpose creates stress, striving, and scarcity. It has us searching and scared that we might not ever find it or do enough to achieve it. However, she says that the antidote to pursuit of a purpose is simply following enchantment instead. She asked to consider that simple daily delights may actually be the greatest gift we can give to ourselves and humanity. That idea brings about a lot more ease than anxiety.

My own journey to creating Aligned Enchantment is a testament to this unfolding.
It makes wonder if the whole point of life is to be present enough to notice the clues of curiosity.

To follow them just far enough in the direction of delight to see glimmers of inspiration that lead to sparks of joy & soul shimmers.

To slow down enough to allow a sliver of space for spontaneity, serendipity, synchronicity, and sacred surprises to surface.

To get still enough to sense the inklings of intuition that invite us into expansive and enchanting places.

What if this is the path to deeper connection, compassion, and collective wellbeing?

What if these simple invitations were all around just asking us to take a closer look?

I think they are.

I think that just might be the whole point.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I had long dreamed of becoming an author and artist, but I knew nothing about the publishing process. Heather at Hezzie Mae took the guesswork out of the logistics while also gently guiding the process. I had always assumed the publishing process was about hard and fast deadlines and full of stress. That was not the case at all working with Heather. It was a delightfully aligned effort with a timeline in mind, but the whole process invited ease and adaptability as the project unfolded. This allowed space for inspiration and serendipitous shifts to occur that made the end result even better than it would have been with a laser-focused finish.

I also thought there would be lots of ‘shoulds’ and ‘to-do’s’ for editing, marketing, and promotion. However that was not what happened. Instead, Heather helped me forge my own path in alignment with my vision and what felt right for me to do. She has developed tools and resources that offer inspiration and ideas, but all are optional and she ensures authors maintain creative control over all aspects of the process. Heather recently wrote a book called “Sell your Book, Not your Soul” that outlines ideas for marketing your book in authentic ways in alignment with your integrity.

I believe this organic, holistic process is what has helped me know that Aligned Enchantment will resonate with those that were meant to find it. It is through genuine relationships that will make this ripple effect grow. I’ll continue to do my part by taking one step at a time and seeing what unfolds. This brings so much joy and peace to the process of creating and marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artofpresence.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_of_presence_rmg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artofpresence.rmg
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-gilbertson-32872b42?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits

Rachel Headshot & Rachel Painting Photo- Sam Gilbertson

Rachel & Heather – Lori Streich

Aligned Enchantment Available Now – Heather Wilde