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Dare You to Try the 20 Seconds of Courage Challenge
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8 Good Things is a curated biweekly newsletter of inspirational and informational articles, videos, and quotes. Content falls into three buckets. Sojourn Explorers is about travel, technology, and exploration. Picture Happiness is about conscious-centered living. Sojourn is about photography, storytelling, and the entertainment industry.

Announcing. For thirteen years, I have been studying Happiness. The last two have been spent working towards a PhD in Conscious-Centered Living. In that time, I wrote a thesis comparing the types of meditation practices that I teach: Mindfulness, Primordial Sound Meditation, and Prayer of the Heart. Followed by a dissertation on the keys to cultivating and sustaining Happiness. I am very pleased to say that I now have three new initials after my name. My hope is that I am able to take what I have learned and help others to live better, more fully.

Make sure to scroll all the way down to see my upcoming trips and programs.

Invite Friends

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1Richard Branson Steps Up His Astronaut Training as First Space Flight Is ‘Just Months Away.’ “Instead of doing one set of tennis every morning and every evening, I’m doing two sets.” Well, that is not all that Sir Richard is doing. He is also centrifuge training to handle the high G-forces during take-off. What is most exciting is that we continue to edge closer to seeing commercial space travel a reality, albeit an expensive one. Leading the charge is the Billionaires Club: Branson, Musk, and Bezos. Branson thinks the race is really between him and Bezos as to who will put ordinary folks into space first.

THE TELEGRAPH

2Did you know? We’re All Stardust — And Why That Should Make You Feel Awesome. “We are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us,” Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I love this guy because he makes the cosmos accessible to us.

NASA
TEDX NASHVILLE

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3We Dare You to Try the 20 Seconds of Courage Challenge. If you can muster twenty seconds of courage to face a fear, you will be on your way to making a breakthrough. So, that raise you want from your boss, that big favor from a friend, that first step training for a marathon, all just seconds away. As the old Nike campaign used to say, Just Do It! You actually may be surprised by the outcome. I have proved this out to myself. No one was more surprised than myself when I crossed the finish line of the New York marathon or summited Kilimanjaro, having neither previously been a marathoner nor a climber.

LIGHTWORKERS

4The Friend Effect: Why the Secret of Health and Happiness Is Surprisingly Simple. “A study has found that regularly eating meals alone is the biggest single factor for unhappiness, besides existing mental illness. Why is hanging out with friends so helpful?” For one, we are wired for human connection. I grew up in a Greek home; food is, well, almost everything. At breakfast, we talk about what we are going to have for lunch. At lunch, we ask what is for dinner? At dinner, it becomes what will we have for breakfast, and the cycle repeats the next day. Almost all of our meals were spent together. We fought, we laughed, most of all it shaped the closeness of our family; same goes for friends.

THE GUARDIAN

5Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Everything on Happiness. Essentially, he thinks it is all about how you run your life and the effort you put in over time. Having spent the last thirteen years consciously cultivating and upleveling my Happiness, I would agree.

BUSINESS INSIDER

6Happiness at Work Doesn’t Just Depend on Your Employer. It also does not depend on having an espresso machine or bean bag chairs to sink into, though they do help 😉 What makes for a happier work environment is people feeling valued, being managed by praise, and having schedule flexibility that allows for work-life balance. The article here points out that the best person for the job could be the one living in an area not easily accessible to the home office. Fifty-seven percent of start-ups in 2017 had at least one person working remotely. Personally, I have always viewed working in an office as a major time waster unless there is a specific reason to be there. Why waste valuable brain time sitting in traffic, being distracted by office chattiness, or getting interrupted every five minutes by people wanting things? My most creative work has always been done outside four white walls. Kudos to the companies who are redefining a “happy work environment.”

THE CONVERSATION

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7Bigger Than This: How to Turn Any Venture Into an Admired Brand. Recently, I attended a symposium for Creative Entrepreneurs at my alma mater, Art Center College of Design. There a fellow alum and author, Fabian Geyrhalter, spoke about the eight traits that can authentically brand a commodity, like Toms shoes and Planet Fitness. A few of the brand traits: the background story you tell, what your company values, and the causes you support. It is all in his small yet mighty book. After reading it, I think several of these traits can be employed by producers, directors, and writers trying to brand themselves uniquely. It is $14.95 well-spent.

AMAZON BOOKS

8Missing the Royal Wedding Mania? These 11 Romantic Movies Taught Us Lessons About Love. My all-time favorite movie on this list is When Harry Met Sally. The lesson being the importance of friendship between lovers. That is what keeps the relationship going long after the initial heat of the moment.

PBS NEWS HOUR

” Thoughtful

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover” ~ Mark Twain.
I agree one hundred percent!

Sojourn Experiences

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Greek Islands | Inquire About Dates
Hit the pause button to sail and hike the islands in the Aegean Sea. Explore with me. Meditate. Do restorative yoga. Eat great food, and do like Zorba. Dance! Opa!! Bring together a group of six friends and set course on your own Greek Odyssey.

Learn more
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Photographic Safari and Mindfulness Workshops
Kenya | Botswana | Inquire About Dates

I took this photo on the last morning of a recent trip to Africa — my favorite place in the world. Great Plains Conservation’s Wild Studio was started by award-winning National Geographic filmmakers Beverly and Dereck Joubert. This is an experience that I put together. It combines learning the secrets of great wildlife photography from a Wild Studio pro along with my Mindfulness teaching. Please join us on a uniquely curated safari that will tap into your true inner-photographer. This adventure can be shared with a group of friends or done as a solo sojourn.

View Kenya
View Botswana

Sojourn Programs

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Happiness: The Art of Life Balance
I am committed to helping those who sit in the overwhelm, continually feeling out of time and always stressed. As a longtime television producer, I have been there many times over and have spent a decade plus studying what to do about it. Now, I work with professionals, helping them get out of the crazy and into the happy (and yes, I still produce shows). I have designed a program that can fit into anyone’s schedule and joined at any time. For a complimentary session, please contact me.

Learn More
Book 50-Minute Phone Session
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By Appointment
Offering private sessions in Mindfulness, Primordial Sound Meditation, Prayer of the Heart Meditation, and Restorative Yoga. Available in-person, or on Skype and FaceTime.

DETAILS
CONTACT ME

Happy Weekend! Love,
Maria and Team Sojourn
Learn More About Us | +800-869-0538

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Maria Baltazzi, PhD, Founder
Purveyor of Happiness and Conscious-Centered Living


Emmy-winning TV Producer, Happiness Mentor, Transformational Travel Guide

Transformational Travel Council logo Transformational Travel Council
North America Ambassador

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Sojourn, Inc. 7095 Hollywood Blvd 843 Los Angeles, California 90028-8912 United States (323) 661-6258

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Arctic Quest

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Reach the Unreachable

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WILD AT HEART

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QUALITY IN EVERY SENSE

Thirty-six hours that will change your life. This is no overstatement. Be among the first to land at our magnetic north in a modern airship that uses innovative technology that combines the best of fixed-wing airplanes, helicopters, and static helium lift. What is old is new and even better, and more sustainable than jets or vehicles.

Photos provided by Design Q
View North Pole
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