Episode 172 - Maria Baltazzi, Take a Shot at Happiness and Sojourn Explorers
In this episode of Soul of Travel, Season 5: Women's Wisdom + Mindful Travel, presented by @journeywoman_original, Christine hosts a soulful conversation with Maria Baltazzi.
Happiness explorer and travel designer Maria Baltazzi is an Emmy-winning veteran television producer and wellbeing teacher whose extraordinary life has taken her to every corner of the globe. Her remarkable journey across all seven continents, walking over 8,500 miles for charity, summiting Kilimanjaro twice, and trekking to Everest Base camp in search of her own road to happiness, is a testament to her commitment to making a positive impact. With a Ph.D. in Conscious-Centered Living and an MFA in film, Maria is well-equipped to inspire others to embark on their epic treks toward happiness. Maria also offers script consulting services through Stage 32, the premiere writer’s platform with over a million members and going.
Embarking on a journey with Maria as your lead is as varied as your own preferences. You can choose to attend Sojourn Wholebeing classes, experience transformative adventures with Sojourn Explorers, or delve into Maria's insightful award-winning book, "Take A Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want,” which, accompanied by an interactive app, offers practical, creative, and inspiring ways to embrace conscious living.
Meet Maria, Happiness Explorer
Maria comes from a background in television production and entrepreneurship. Her wellbeing journey started with reading books, which turned into certifications and a degree, and has culminated in her first book: Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want.
“In my book, I draw a lot from my television experience. I draw a lot from movies that we all know and love; we go to movies, and so often, we walk away with something we’ve learned or some kind of impact that we’ve had through that story. And my travels. And everything has come together in my book.”
Maria calls herself a Happiness Explorer, someone who seeks to understand themselves better and what makes them happier and their well-being. She encourages readers to do the same through introspection about everyday life and traveling around the world.
The long hours, stress, and demands of her production experience and time in the TV industry (including being one of the original producers of Survivor, where she spent seven years seeing the best–and worst–of what humans are capable of). She began to recognize that “We all have untapped potential that we don’t fully understand…until we either have it tested, or we explore it.”
Happiness, Well-being, and Wholebeing
Maria defines happiness as a state of being, not a fleeting emotion, “when your thoughts and your emotions are in alignment with the things that you value.” She is driven to study happiness because, she shares, “it’s resilience…learning the emotional tools to get you through those difficult times.”
Christine and Maria discuss how to access, cultivate, and pursue happiness as a real necessity in life, not as an add-on or a goal to chase.
Maria shares a travel story of visiting Hong Kong and riding a bus on the outskirts of town with other American travelers. She recollects others on the bus commenting on a “lack” of everything–creature comforts that the travelers couldn’t think of living without–and the dissonance between those comments and the happy, grinning faces of the people they were passing.
Christine shares the sentiment, recognizing that happiness and values are so different wherever you are in the world.
The Happiness Set Point and Three Foundational Values of Happiness
Sonja Lyubomisrky at the University of California Riverside. Maria explains that she found 50% of our happiness is determined by our DNA. Beyond that, 10% comes from circumstances, with 40% of happiness coming from conscious decisions and activities we choose to engage in that bring happiness to our experience.
We’ve all been where Maria describes mid-way through the podcast, where she shares that she was at one of her lowest lows. In that moment, she chose happiness. She chose to leave happiness behind. She chose to qualify and find what did bring her happiness in the past and may just bring her happiness into the future. With this curiosity sparked, she sought out science behind happiness, which would become her Ph.D. dissertation and, later, the virtues and qualities of happy people she outlines in her book.
“For me, my alpha, in-between, and omega is my faith. Faith for me is my bedrock…it’s my vessel that holds hope and solace and answers the unanswerable.”
Beyond faith, Maria explains, is love–including community love. And your health is an extension of love for yourself, of a commitment to your well-being, and of your ability to withstand hardship through happiness, and so much more.
These three pillars don’t stand alone; they are integrated and interrelated, and when one grows, the others grow, too.
“We all have untapped potential that we don’t fully understand…until we either have it tested, or we explore it.”
Soul of Travel Episode 172 At a Glance
In this conversation, Christine and Maria Baltazzi discuss:
· The inspiration for Maria’s book and how it surfaced during her time as a TV producer
· The intersection between wellbeing and travel
· How we can understand happiness as a state of being and not a destination
· How Maria’s book helps readers develop their own relationship with happiness
Join Christine now for this soulful conversation with Maria Baltazzi.
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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
Get your copy of Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want.
Visit https://mariabaltazzi.com to learn more about Maria and connect with each of her projects.
Book your next solo or small group travel experience with Maria and Sojourn Explorers.
About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.
Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.
We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.
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Join the 2024 Soulful Book Sojourn
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Soul of Travel Episode 172 Transcript
Women’s travel, transformational travel, sustainable travel, women leaders in travel, social entrepreneurship
Christine: Welcome to the Soul of Travel podcast. I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick, the founder of Lotus Sojourns, a book lover, Yogi mom of three girls and your guide On this journey. We are here to discover why women who are seasoned travelers, industry professionals, and global community leaders fall in love with the people and places of this planet. Join me to explore how travel has inspired our guests to change the world. We seek to understand the driving force, unending curiosity and wanderlust that can best be described as the soul of Travel. Soul of Travel Podcast is a proud member of the Journey, woman Family, where we work to create powerful forums for women to share their wisdom and inspire meaningful change in travel. In each soulful conversation, you'll hear compelling travel stories alongside tales of what it takes to bring our creative vision to life as we're living life with purpose, chasing dreams and building businesses to make the world a better place. But the real treasure here is the story of the journey as we reflect on who we were, who we are, and who we're becoming. We are travelers, thought leaders and heart-centered change makers, and this is the soul of Travel
Happiness explorer and travel designer. Maria Balze is an Emmy winning veteran television producer and wellbeing teacher whose extraordinary life has taken her to every corner of the globe. Her remarkable journey across all seven continents, walking over 8,500 miles for charity summiting Kilimanjaro twice and trekking to Everest Base Camp in search of her own road to happiness is a testament to her commitment to making a positive impact. With a PhD in Conscious centered Living and an MFA in film, Maria is well equipped to inspire others to embark on their epic treks toward happiness. Maria also offers script consulting services through Stage 32, the Premier Writers platform with over a million members and going embarking on a journey with Maria as your lead is as varied as your own preferences. You can choose to attend Sojourn whole being classes, experience transformative adventures with Sojourn explorers, or delve into Maria's insightful award-winning book Take a Shot at Happiness, how to Write Direct and Produce the Life you Want, which accompanied by an interactive app offers creative and inspiring ways to embrace conscious living. In this conversation, Maria and I talk about the inspiration for her book and how it surfaced during her travel experiences. As a television producer, we look at the intersection of wellbeing and travel and how that can help us to have an understanding of happiness as a state of being and not a destination. She shares how her book and its Happiness Essentials and practices for Engaging all help readers to develop their own relationship with happiness. Join me now for my soulful conversation with Return guest Maria Bazi.
Hey, it's Christine here to talk to you about one of the simplest ways you can create a more positive impact when traveling. A way to have both a positive impact and a great experience is to travel year round. Now, I don't mean traveling 365 days out of the year though, if you can do that, how amazing. I mean, traveling during times that are not considered peak season, many of us may be constrained by our schedule or even only think about traveling during the summer. However, I'd love to create a shift and explore the possibilities of traveling all year round and invite you to explore those opportunities with our founding sponsor. Trafalgar, when you think about your precious days off, you might wonder if you'll be missing anything, but I invite you to think about all you might gain when you travel during less visited times to more popular destinations.
You get to experience these destinations with less people, congestions and lines, which gives you more time and space to connect with the place and people who live there. You'll be supporting local businesses that may be overwhelmed during the height of high season and spread the economic benefits of travel throughout the whole year. Traveling in Greece recently, I got to see and feel this shift from hustle and bustle to quieter days. For me, it meant so much more to be there at a time when locals had more freedom to engage, which led to deeper connections and offered me unique insights into local customs, traditions and daily routines. My daughters befriended the daughter of the owners of our small local hotel and spent hours playing without noticing their language barrier. Her grandmother had time to offer us fresh baked goods and invite my girls into their restaurant to draw and play.
It was completely different to the experience we'd had weeks earlier. In the height of peak season, I felt like I was missing nothing and gaining everything. In speaking with Melissa De Silva, north American president of the Travel Corporation Tour Brands and Trafalgar in the first episode of the season, we talked about the ways you can glimpse local life and authentic living in some of the most captivating cities and how you can do that with our founding sponsor, Trafalgar, whether it is spending winter months exploring Venice or London fall in Barcelona or spring in Turkey to see the tulips begin to bloom and taste the fresh produce, you'll experience these places in a whole new way. Trafalgar knows that one of the best ways to tread lightly is to spread our travels over the year. It benefits the environment, communities, and local businesses anytime of the year.
With Trafalgar, you can connect with local communities participating in their signature, be my guest experiences, offering connection with local community members and time to get to know them, their story, and the place they call home be. My guest experiences are where locals have the opportunity to welcome guests into their homes, vineyards, inns, and Chateau, and prepare a special meal that is usually farm to table. And with Trafalgar, you know you'll have a positive impact with make travel matter experiences included on each and every tour. These conscious travel experiences are chosen with great care based on the positive social or environmental impact they have on their communities and those experiencing them. I look forward to seeing how a shift from thinking of Off Peak as a time when we might be missing out to the perfect time to travel can begin to change the way we travel and the impact we have as travelers. Thank you to the Travel Corporation and their amazing family of tour brands, Trafalgar Insight, vacations, cost Saver, Brennan Vacations, luxury, gold, and Tiki for joining us this season as a founding sponsor. Now let's get into our next soulful conversation. Welcome to Soul of Travel podcast. I'm your host Christine, and today I'm excited to have another return guest. There's been a few this season. Maria Bazi joined me way back in episode 23 and today she's here to talk about her new book and I can't wait to dive into this conversation with you to talk about the intersection of happiness and wellness and travel. I think that we have so much to connect on and I can't wait to get started. So welcome to the podcast.
Maria: Oh, thank you for having me. It's so wonderful to be in conversation with you again.
Christine: Thank you. Yeah, I've definitely missed you. This is one of the hardest parts about the podcast is I get to connect with so many incredible women and hear their stories and be really invested in their journey. And then because our lives are so busy, especially in travel, and all of us are creators and innovators, and so we're doing so many things that I feel like we just become ships admiring each other as we pass in the night and giving each other some cheerleading and some celebration of each other's work, but I don't get to stay as connected as I wish I could to so many incredible people. But I'm really grateful for the time that you always do carve out for me and for the way that you continue to support the podcast. So thank you for that.
Maria: Oh, well, thank you for having the podcast. It's been incredible to see your journey from where you started to where you are now. You have quite a lovely success story and I wish you continued success.
Christine: Thank you. I really appreciate it. Well, as I mentioned, for any of our listeners, if they want to go back and listen to your first conversation with me, it was episode 23. There you're going to probably hear a lot more of your backstory than we're going to get into today, but I did want to, as we get started, just turn it over for you to introduce yourself, Maria, and just tell my listeners a little bit more about who you are.
Maria: My last name is Bazi Maria Balta and I have a background in television. So for many years, and still I am involved in the entertainment industry, but I come from shooting shows around the world and out of that and also doing marathons on every continent. I started a travel business, an immersive travel experience business, and out of the stresses of doing television production, I started to really focus on my wellbeing, which started as reading some books that turned into certifications that turned into a degree and eventually a book. And so my book is The Pulling Together of All My Worlds. So my book is called Take a Shot at Happiness, how to Write Direct and Produce the Life You Want. And in my book I draw a lot from my television experience. I draw a lot from movies that we all know and love, that we go to movies and often we walk away with something we've learned or some kind of impact that we've had through that story.
And my travels, it's everything has come together really in my book. So I am hoping that readers will really benefit from the stories that I share that really help them live better lives, more qualitative lives. And one of the things that I say that I am is a happiness explorer, which is someone who seeks to better understand themselves and what makes them happy or happier and their wellbeing. And I encourage readers to do the same. And so much of it is what are you experiencing, whether it's in your everyday life or traveling to distant lands.
Christine: Yeah, thank you. I love that you shared the beginning of your journey. I think so many of our listeners and other guests can relate to that kind of high adrenaline or high profile sort of position or climbing the corporate ladder and then reaching this point in your own life where you realize that you don't feel nourished or happy or you don't feel the way you expected at this point in your life. And so many people start this kind of internal journey or this exploration, which I love how you said, exploring happiness. I think that's what many people are doing. We don't even remember or are not comfortable with even being happy. I think often it's something that, and I'm sure we'll talk about this a lot more, but something that I think people have a really complex relationship with emotions like happiness and joy, and so it almost does need to be a journey and a practice to be able to keep guiding ourselves in that direction, myself included for sure.
So this is why I loved your book, but then how you were talking about that light turned on for you and then you started looking for practices in your own life and then amassing kind of all of this knowledge, which I feel like I've seen so many people do, right? You become a yoga teacher or a meditation guide, or you start learning about sound medicine or running for your wellbeing. There's all these different avenues and then once we learn about it, we want to share it with others and create a space for others to be a part of this thing that was really important for us. So for me, that's just really resonates. I think there's so many people who have gone through that journey on their own who want to share it with others, and I love that that is in fact what you're doing.
And I also had it in my notes to share with the title. I love the idea of write direct and produce the life you want because it's such a nod to who you are and where you came from and where this book came from. So I wanted you to just share a little bit more about that. How did your career as an Emmy-winning television producer really start to have you asking these questions about happiness? What did you see that you realized were maybe at odds with happiness or what were those things that sparked your question and this initial exploration?
Maria: I just want to reference the title again. The title is, and thank you for saying what you did about it, because that was the intention when I came up with the title for my book that it was a call back, it was a reflection of my background. It's also a call to action. You're asking people to take a shot at their happiness and their wellbeing as well as what you are doing throughout the book, because as you come to the end of each chapter, I have guided photography prompts, so that's your take a shot, so to speak. And then you have journaling prompts that help anchor the information that you're learning. So as you're reading concepts, you're taking them from your head, from taking intellectual concepts and making them heart concepts. You're being able to integrate that into your happiness framework. What is specific to your wellbeing?
And coming from the world that I came from, there was a lot of stress, a lot of demands, a lot of long hours, a lot of not really feeling like you had the time to take care of yourself. You're exposed to a lot of toxic personalities. You see a lot of bad behavior, but also you see a lot of good behavior. I was one of the original producers on Survivor, and I did that for seven seasons, and that gave me a front row seat to seeing the best and the worst in human nature. And I would always do the last episode. So I was with the contestants all the way through the season, and I would sit with them in interview time and again and hear the same words. This isn't me. This is me playing a game. And it's like, well, of course it is you.
Those were your words and actions. And it started me to think that we all have untapped potential that we don't fully understand, good or bad. We don't understand until we either have it tested like the survivors, they haven't been on a remote island vying for life-changing money without your creature comforts, without your support of family and friends to really know how they would behave until they got into that situation or you explore it, which is what I have done and continue to do. And what my book guides readers to do is to explore happiness so they really, really understand it for themselves. Yes, you can say, well, yeah, gratitude and love and faith, and yeah, those things make me happy. But have you really thought about how does it really impact your happiness? Have you really reflected on that and had that deeper understanding, which is what my book helps readers do? So it was my observation, my experiences, and my own meltdown that drove me to want to create a book that was cathartic for me to write and would help others.
Christine: Yeah, I think so many authors feel the same way. That's a journey in and of itself, getting the book from inside of you onto the actual pages and then reading it again, all of those things are very distinct processes of your own growth and reflection. I wanted to really, as we start to dive more into the book, I wanted to talk to you about your definitions of both happiness, and then you have mentioned wellbeing, but in your book you also mentioned the term of whole being. So I really wanted to begin there so that we can understand how this was shaped for you and what you're really guiding people towards.
Maria: So the way I define happiness, it's a state of being. It's not a fleeting emotion, which some people feel it is. But for me, I feel happiness is a state of being, and it's when your thoughts and emotions are in alignment with the things that you value. And that then became the basis of the chapters. The chapters of my books are happiness. And then what was the other one you wanted? Me
Christine: Whole being,
Maria: Whole being, whole being, I think of when you are taking care of your happiness, it's not just one aspect. It's not just taking care of your physical body, it's not just taking care of your mental wellbeing. It's not just taking care of your spiritual wellbeing. It's all of them. And so for me, I will use the word wellbeing because people understand that it's a quicker shorthand that people get what you're onto. But I think the better descriptive is whole being because you are engaging your mind, body, and spirit when you are talking about your overall happiness.
Christine: And I love the idea of happiness as a state of being instead of as a destination. I think because when you're in that pursuit of happiness as this end point, you are almost as surely never going to get there. I think it's just an impossible journey if you only end up there. But like you said, it's actually looking at all these things in your life and how they're in alignment. And then every one of those choices is creating a life that fills you with joy and fills you with happiness. And so then it's something that's continuous. And I think also something then that you can tap into every day. It doesn't have to be this daunting end game. It's like this beautiful set of moments that can be interwoven with things that don't feel like happiness, but they're still, they can exist at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense for you, but as I was reading it, that's kind of what I was starting to feel for myself.
Maria: Yeah, I agree with that. Because happiness isn't that you're always chipper and everything is okay. My feeling about happiness and why you want to study it, why you want to cultivate it is that it's resilience. Happiness to me is another word for resilience. So you understand the things that make you happier. So when you have those challenging times, you have a better wherewithal to deal with them. You learn those emotional tools that help you navigate those challenging times. And then the things that make you happy, they ebb and flow, they change over time. What gives you happiness in your twenties, it's going to change by the time you are in your forties, so on and into life. And so when you have this baseline of how you navigate the world that accounts for those changes in your life, as well as those moments when you get upset about something, I know that when I get upset about something, I know that that is not defining me.
I know that I go back to a baseline where I can put whatever that upset is in a healthy place. I can recognize upset sooner, navigate through them a little bit more gracefully than I would've at another time, although I still have my not so graceful moments and come out on the other side being more emotionally intact. And I think when you can see your life challenges as lessons or if you are inclined in a more spiritual direction, that this is part of your spiritual curriculum, that these challenges are in service to you as opposed to happening to you, I think it changes the way you feel about things.
Christine: Yeah, I think that's all super valuable. And I remember writing down in the book that you had said, happiness is resilience wrapped in hopeful packaging. And that was another line that really stuck with me because I just think it was a great reframe for me. So I think a lot of this, the book for me was just kind of reshaping my relationship with happiness. And so I think that was and has been very valuable to get to know happiness again and to understand what I want it to be in my life. And I also think it's very interesting how you were saying happiness in your twenties is this thirties, forties, fifties. It will continue to evolve and align with your values as you evolve. And I think that can be really hard because I don't know how many other people can relate to this, but there's a certain point in my life for sure, when I was so focused on everything outside of myself that someone had asked me, they're like, can you tell me five things that bring you joy or that bring you happiness?
And I want you to try to do one every week. And I looked at them like they had just said the craziest thing on earth to me. And then I thought, how is it that in this moment I can't really quickly think of five things that make me feel joy or lightness or happiness or however you want to be thinking about it? And so I think I just invite people into this conversation wherever they're at, because again, I think we have just a unique way of thinking about happiness and whatever that might look like. And maybe I'm just projecting my own experience all over the place, which could be happening, but I think it's really important to just acknowledge that maybe we've lost touch with that. And I don't know if, I mean, there's so many things that we go through, but have you heard from other people who have had similar thoughts that they actually realize they don't know what truly brings them happiness
Maria: Or they don't know that they can give themselves the permission to be happy taking care of your happiness? And there are people who don't realize that they can do that for themselves, and that's not being selfish or self-centered or narcissistic. That in fact is something that is a very real necessity. You need to show up for yourself first so then you can be present for others. And I think also people misunderstand what happiness is. They think it's this fluffy thing that comes and goes, or it's something that they can have at a later date and time. They put it off, well, I'll be happy later when my kids go off to college. I'll be happy when I am making $5 million. I will be happy when I have a bigger home. And those are all things that live outside of you. Any job status, any material good, those are all fleeting. The real true happiness is what is inside of you. And not everybody recognizes that they put, as you were talking about, it's outside of them.
Christine: As you were just saying that I'm wondering too, and I know for me this was a real perspective shift, but as you travel and you actually spend a lot of time in cultures that maybe do not have all of those grandiose external things in their lives, that it wouldn't be a part of their culture to be thinking about a mansion or earning $5 million or having five big screen TVs that external happiness just isn't a part of their culture. And you witness the internal happiness and it at first is a little uncomfortable or unknown, and you're like, what am I actually witnessing? And then you realize that it's this real pure, and I think like you're saying this happiness that's actually a part of who you are instead of what you are. But do you think that there's been moments in your travels or in your experiences where that shifted for you?
Maria: Oh, yes. One of the first, I'm going to say it's the first time or definitely the first notable time. I was early in my television career, I was actually working at a local station in San Francisco, and through the station I was able to go to Hong Kong. And I remember traveling outside of the city to go into some of the villages. And I was with a busload of other Americans and fairly well to do. And I remember hearing the comments, oh, look at these people. They don't have anything. They're sitting on floors that are dirt floors. They don't have much of in the way of utensils or creature comforts or a phone. I mean, any of the things that we are used to having. And I remember just hearing their voices making these descriptions and looking at the faces of the people in the villages, and they were smiling. And it occurred to me, I mean, just having those smiling, beautiful faces with judgment that was being leveled on them, on their state of happiness or their lack of, and it was the first time that I remember acknowledging we cannot judge another culture's happiness by our standards. And that was such an epiphany for me. It's like, I don't know. These people look like they're pretty happy.
Christine: Yeah, no, that's such a great point too, is that there's just different cultural definitions that we also get caught up in. And I think that's also, especially in the western world, part of where happiness becomes external, because that is kind of a little bit of what we've been taught about it. And so I think the other thing is that I know for me, I grapple with holding joy and then holding the reality of the complexities of the world at the same time. And sometimes I feel guilty if I feel happiness or if I feel joy that devalues people's experience of hardship. And that's been a, that for me has been something I've really had to wrestle with, I guess is the right word, because I find it hard to just say, I can have this even though I know this is your experience right now. I still need to feel joy. And in fact, my happiness might be the catalyst to creating change. I just think for me, it's been a very interesting conversation I've had with myself.
Maria: Well, to that Viktor Frankl who wrote Man's Search of Meaning, he was a Holocaust survivor, and he noted that the ones who really were able to weather that experience were the ones who found something to be hopeful for something to find joy in while they were experiencing their horrors. And he famously talks about you can be in a situation that you are not in control of. However, what you are in control of is your reaction. And so I think it's actually wonderful if you can find some way to keep yourself even find a moment that is hopeful, that can give you a shred of feeling good in those times that seem really hopeful because it's those small moments of feeling good that I think pull you through those tough times. And you could actually not only be the catalyst for change, but be the catalyst for bringing hope and joy and happiness to someone else.
Christine: Yeah. Thank you. I think that's such wisdom. One of the other things that I had written down that I thought was really interesting, I had read about it before and kind of forgot about until I saw it in your book, is a happiness set point. So this was something that really intrigued me when I first read about it. I was like, Ooh, this is very sciencey and I'm very curious about it. But can you talk to me and our listeners a little bit about what happiness set point is and how that relates to the context of your book?
Maria: So the happiness set point comes out of the laboratory, the happiness research labs of Sonia Erky who is at the University of California Riverside. And she had in her research come up with this pie pie chart of our happiness levels. And so she says that 50% of our happiness is determined by our DNA now what we come into the world with from our parents. And then there is 10%, which is circumstantial. Now what is the state of our lives now? And then 40% is intentional activities, things that we consciously do to level up our happiness. And so when it comes to your DNA, just because you are predisposed with a certain DNA doesn't mean that it's, so then you start getting into epigenetics that you need to be inside a certain environment for those genes to fire off. So there's that factor. And then if you have 40% within your wherewithal to change your level of happiness, that in my mind affects that 10% of your life circumstances, which could also be affecting your DNA, what genes are firing off or not firing off. So all this to say is that you have a huge amount within your control. So just because you have a happiness set point, if you're looking at a happiness continuum, and some people are more predisposed on that happiness continuum from depressed and very unhappy to wildly optimistic and super happy, and your set point is somewhere along that continuum just because maybe you are edging more towards the unhappy part of that continuum as your set point, it doesn't mean that it's fixed. You can do something to move it. And there's a lot you can do.
Christine: Yeah, thank you for talking about that. I just thought it was so interesting, and I think it's always so good to think about what that can mean and how it is variable or how there is, we do have control of the circumstances. And so now I would love to dive more into the book. This is kind of a way of we take that control. So you've talked a little bit about how it's shaped. There are the three ways of exploring or engaging that you mentioned through photography and journaling you mentioned, but also community is another point, and then also each of the happiness essentials. So I'd love for you to just walk us through some of those and help us to understand why those are important in this exploration.
Maria: When I was at my darkest point, when nothing was working in my life and not wanting to stay there, I qualified for myself what did bring me happiness in the past and felt wood in the future and could find a little smidgen of it even in that dark moment of mine. And then I went out and researched to see if there was science to back up what I was intuitively feeling about the things that would make me happier. And that actually became my PhD dissertation and then eventually the chapters in my book. And so I call them happiness essentials, and they're really the values of happy people. They're the virtues and qualities and habits of happy people. And I did this because I felt that if I could qualify it for myself, it would help me better understand happiness and how to manage that and how to manage that for myself. That's also where the books activities come from too.
Christine: Yeah. Well, I think it was really interesting for me, I'm pulling up the book so I can see the things that I marked, but I think even just starting with faith, I think that was so important because I think that can be one of, it can be such an interesting one to tap into because again, of connotations, I think faith has one connotation in the context of religion and spirituality or just maybe perhaps in religion. And then there's faith just in as a driver to be connected to something outside of yourself. And I think it can be one of those things that takes a while to trust and to lean into, and that you, I think maybe you would agree, you really have to have faith to kind of tap into that optimism or into that possibility. Like you said, that hopeful packaging, we need that faith. So I thought that was such a grounding place to begin this look.
Maria: Yeah, I think the three foundational values that happiness is built on is faith, love in your health. For me, my alpha in between and Omega is my faith. Faith for me is the bedrock. It's the starting point. It's that vessel that holds hope and solace and answers the unanswerable and however you define that for yourself, I certainly am not pushing any kind of religion or philosophical practice that is highly personal. The only thing I'm encouraging is to explore it for yourself and understand what is faith for you, because we all have some kind of faith. Even just having the faith that you get on a plane in Los Angeles and you end up in New York, you have that faith in that pilot. It is a form of faith. So how is faith defined for you and how does that fit into your happiness framework? And out of that, I then think love.
There is so much that supports how important it is to love yourself, have loving relationships, have supportive networks around you. The happiest countries in the world happen to also be some of the coldest countries in the world where you would think, oh, people would be happier in warmer climates because they can be outside and they're not freezing. But what they all share in common, these colder, happy countries, is that they have very strong social networks. And so that community, whether it's a loving community of close friends or it is supported by the greater society, I mean it's all a form of love, which is so nurturing. And then health, I think your health is taking care of it. Also, MINDBODY and Spirit, three dimensionally is your best health insurance plan. If you don't take care of your health, all the privilege, access, money, dreams, nothing of that matters if you do not have your health. And I think when you love yourself enough, then you are more likely to want to take care of your health. So to me, they start building on each other. When you have faith, out of faith comes love. When you have love and you have those nurturing relationships with yourself and others and society at large, it motivates you to want to take care of yourself. So I think that those are the three pillars that everything else gets built on.
Christine: Yeah. Thank you. I agree. I think it's so interesting when you break it down and look at those different things in your life and then how much happiness actually comes from each of those places. I mean, they really do. And I can see in myself when I'm in a place where my faith in others, my faith in myself, my faith in the universe is strong. I feel strong, I feel comfortable, I feel secure. And from that place of ease, happiness is with me. But when I start to waver in that or question or feel an external influence, make me question my faith, then I can feel myself sliding off of that. And like you said, then the love is tangled up in the next part of that because then the love gets questioned or it does, it starts to build up or it falls back down.
And I think it's really important. I think we see that on a global scale, even how those things are so important to one another. And so I think much like you were saying before, this is work that we do for ourselves, but it becomes really important for the good of all to be able to find and understand and cultivate happiness in our own lives. So I think it's such a powerful practice. When you were talking about the actual practices, because what I really loved about this book, a lot of times you can pick up a book that tells you about many different ideologies or thinkings or ways of growing yourself. And you read it and you're like, that was beautiful. I loved it. And then you put it down and you kind of forget about it until someone mentions the book a year later. But your book really has a lot of actionable items in it, and it's very individualized. So people, they are doing this work as they go through the book. So I wanted to talk to you about the ways that this process is actionable through the book, through the photography and journaling and all these different ways that you envisioned it.
Maria: I want to first comment on something you said a moment ago. Even though the chapters are discreet, you talk about faith, you talk about love, you talk about health, and they're separate chapters, but you're right, they're all interrelated very much. And also I think most people don't understand how faith factors into their happiness or love or gratitude, how relevant that really is to their happiness. So I'm thankful that you pointed that out because I think that it's one of the key points of my book. And I think that it's really great for people to understand, and that's part of the exploration that you explore these different values to better understand how it fits into your happiness framework. And the use of images was very intentional. Certainly it calls back to my television world, but also if you think about it, we think in pictures, when we have a thought, it becomes an image in our head. And so a lot of times we have these image loops that are not serving us well, and we almost don't even know how to reframe that, how to change that. And the photo prompts throughout the book, it's teaching people how to consciously look for the good positive moments throughout their day every day. And when you start doing this on a conscious level, you become more aware of the imagery that you have in your head and the control in which you have to reframe that.
And then the journaling prompts help you process when you write, and especially when you're writing freehand, it helps you make just a blob of thought and starts to organize it, start to understand it, and it becomes a catharsis in your understanding of a particular concept about faith or love or any of the other chapters. So you take a picture of something and then you journal about it and the act of both of them, it's a creative approach. And I think when you learn creatively, you embody it a different way. I think it makes it less of a head idea and makes it more of a full body idea that you take on.
Christine: Yeah, I love that. And I love the way that, I mean, literally changing the pictures, that's so easy for me to kind of conceptualize. I'm definitely a visual person, so I love this aspect as well. And then I also was thinking, even for journaling when I was thinking about this, some people have a resistance to journaling because maybe they're uncomfortable with writing or maybe they don't have that faith in their own inner voice yet. But for me, sometimes when I'm really stuck with journaling, I do just like the word bubbles so that I can get myself away from even having to worry about what I'm writing down. And I have found that really helpful just to, you take the image and then you write down, I don't know what the image might be, tree is the first thing that came to my mind. And then from that, I think maybe roots grounded or free or cleansing or all these things. And then all of a sudden you have these words and then you're like, okay, now I can go back and just maybe connect these thoughts that I seemed like I didn't have access to or these emotions or this way of thinking. And then it becomes even more integrated because you are connecting all of these other dots that were related to something. I feel like some people maybe if this isn't something that feels accessible right away, for me, that was something that it just took one layer of my own pressure off.
Maria: Well, I think it is also taking the photos can be very meditative. That's what I noticed for myself is when I would just focus on one image, one thing, everything else that I was thinking about just fell away. So if I was walking in my neighborhood and it's the morning and I come across a beautiful rose that is lit by the morning sun, and I just focus my attention and take a picture of that that has its own joy and meditation, the act of taking it. And then later on when I look at that photo, I can then call back to that memory that gave me such joy in that moment and re-experience that. And then you can also notice things in your photos that you didn't notice at the time you were taking it. So it works on multiple levels. And the thing about taking photographs of positive moments through the day, and especially when it's being guided, what you're doing is you, you're looking for moments to savor.
One of my favorite lessons that I learned from Dr. Rick Hansen was savoring the good. And that's what taking guided images really helps you to do is that when you savor something that is positive, that feels good for 20 to 30 seconds, you then install that as a memory. And when you do that enough consistently over time, you create a positive neural pathway. So it's like creating a new trail. When you first start that trail, it's not very, you don't really see it, but the more you keep going over it, the more you keep doing these positive, intentional activities, the more that groove, that positive neural pathway will get created and more defined and wider. So I think it's just such a marvelous way to learn positive habits.
Christine: Yeah, even as you were talking about the rose image as well, I think it relates to me so much in the context of slow travel or just being more present and mindful. Just that act of slowing down, I think in itself allows us to feel more joy or to see awe and beauty around us because I think as human creatures, that's something we crave but can fall off in the chaos of our lives. And so this is such a beautiful practice too, to just remember to do that, just to remember to look for the beauty and those moments and to slow down and connect. And so I think this works for so many things. Like you said, it's a seemingly simple practice, but it starts to ripple out in a lot of different ways.
Maria: Well, that's the thing about these seemingly simple practices, they're very profound. They're profound, especially when you do them enough, they become a habit. When they become a habit, they reshape your wellbeing. So very profound. And we tend to do the things that we enjoy doing. So if you are enjoying taking the photographs and having those memories afterwards and writing your experiences, you're more likely to do it, which is why I created the app. The Take a Shot at Happiness app is so you would always have those activities with you. So if you're passing by something or you're experiencing something, you can take a photo of it and then journal about it later. You can create that portfolio, if you will, of happiness.
Christine: Yeah. Thank you. I think that is really helpful, helpful to have that tangible part of it to continue to recount and rebuild and reconnect to. Well, our conversation flew by, I'm just looking at my clock and sad because I feel like we could talk a lot more, but I want to make sure that our listeners know to find the book we mentioned Take a Shot at Happiness. People are listening, probably not watching the video, but I'll show it just in case because I have it right here. And before we end our call, I want to just go through the rapid fire questions that I can't remember if I had or they've surely evolved since you were here last time, or your answers may have evolved. So either way, we'll do it again. The first question is, what are you reading right now?
Maria: What am I reading right now? I am reading You are The Guru by Gabby Bernstein.
Christine: Yeah. What is always in your suitcase or backpack when you travel? What
Maria: Is always in my suitcase or backpack when I travel Lip gloss,
Christine: I thought for sure you were going to say a camera and a journal. So now we know it's a camera, a journal, and lip gloss.
Maria: I go anywhere without lip gloss
Christine: To Sojourn is to travel somewhere as if you live there for a short while. Where is a place that you still would love to sojourn?
Maria: I have yet. Oh, space.
Christine: Oh my goodness. That's an endeavor, but what a profound experience as well.
Maria: I was going to say Namibia, because Namibia has been on my hit list for a while, and it's like, oh, I could really go anywhere. I'd go into space.
Christine: I like it. I like that. I think that's the biggest shot that anyone's taken. So you're literally to the ends of the earth. What is something you eat that immediately connects you to a place you've been?
Maria: What do I eat that immediately connects me? Oh, that's a good question. I'm not sure I have a food that can Oh, south African wine.
Christine: Yeah. Who was a person that inspired or encouraged you to set out and travel the world?
Maria: My father. My father.
Christine: If you could take an adventure with one person, fictional or real, alive or past, who would it be?
Maria: Peter, the Great.
Christine: Okay. And Soul of Travel is for honoring women in the tourism industry. This is your chance. If there's someone that you would like to recognize in this space, I'd love to give that time to you.
Maria: I'd like to recognize you. That's who I want to recognize. You have done such a phenomenal job and created such a beautiful container for so many women to share their stories, their journeys. I want to recognize you. It's incredible that you are now one of the top most downloaded podcasts. I mean, you have really put in the work. You have really done a lot to support women. You need the shout out.
Christine: Oh, thank you. I'm grateful to receive that. I really appreciate it. Also, I think that you are the most rapid, rapid fire question answer ever, so we'll celebrate that seemingly insignificant moment, but very good job.
Maria: Do you want to know why I chose Peter the great?
Christine: Yeah, I'm very curious.
Maria: I was waiting for the follow up.
Christine: I was trying to keep with you. Were like, I'm going to do this very succinctly.
Maria: He did the great, because he brought Russia so many things. It's like he brought Russia so forward. Everyone was against him, and he just by sheer will brought Russia into at that time, the modern age, and I just fell in love with that character as I read his biography.
Christine: Yeah, thank you for sharing that with us, and thank you so much for being here and for being here. Again, I really encourage our listeners to go back and listen to your first episode, even as we end this call. I'm sad that we didn't have all of the conversation that we already had then, but it already exists so people can go back and listen to it. You have so much to share in so many different areas, but I'm also really glad to be here to celebrate your book and to celebrate that accomplishment and know that that is also going to create a ripple in people's lives. So thank you so much for being here with me today.
Maria: Thank you for having me. It was such a pleasure chatting again. Thank you. Thank you.
Christine: Thank you for listening to Soul of Travel, presented by Journey Woman. I hope you enjoyed the journey. If you loved this conversation, I encourage you to subscribe and rate the podcast. Please share episodes that inspire you with others because this is how we extend the impact of this show. Learn more about each of my guests by reading our episode blogs, which are more than your average show notes. I think you'll love the connection. Find our episode blogs at www.souloftravelpodcast.com. I'm so proud of the way these conversations are bringing together people from around the world. If this sounds like your community, welcome, I'm so happy you are here. I am all about community and would love to connect. You can find me on Facebook at Soul of Travel podcast or follow me on Instagram, either at she dot sojourns or at Soul of Travel podcast. Stay up to date by joining the Soul of Travel podcast mailing list. You'll also want to explore the Journey Woman community and its resources for women travelers over 50. I'd also like to share a quick thank you to my podcast producer and content magician, Carly Oduardo, CEO of ConVerGente. I look forward to getting to know you and hopefully hear your story.
You can find me on Facebook at Lotus Sojourns on Facebook, or join the Lotus Sojourns Collective, our FB community, or follow me on Instagram either @lotussojourns or @souloftravelpodcast. Stay up to date by joining the Lotus Sojourns mailing list. I look forward to getting to know you and hopefully hearing your story.