Tonight marks the 98th Academy Awards! If you live in Los Angeles, it is a holiday. Most people are gathering for watch parties, and I am too. This is a time to connect with others, talk about your favorite films, guess who will win, and “oh” and “ah” over the gowns and tuxedos. Ultimately, it all comes down to relationships and who you choose to spend this time with. That is what I want to talk about here.
Pause for a second. Think about the quality of the time you spend with others. Then, reflect on when some of those relationships come to an end.
I have traveled with people who were trying to get past the end of a relationship. One guest came with me up Kilimanjaro, then later to Machu Picchu after his wife left him. I watched what happened when the day became physical. It became step, breath, water, weather, pace.
On a climb, the mind still brings up its stories. It still tries to replay the same moments, the same scene. Yet it cannot dominate the entire day. The body demands your attention. Your footing matters. Your breathing matters. Your next step matters. You start living in a smaller span of time: the present.
That is one of the most useful things travel can do for you. It breaks the spell of constant mental rehearsal. The change of scenery helps, and so does how a new place shifts your attention, your pace, and your choices.
When people say they want “closure,” what they often want is a clean ending they never got. Travel rarely gives clean endings. It gives something else: a chance to stop volunteering your attention to the same scene.
So here is the invitation for this issue:
Choose one scene you keep reopening. Then choose one way you will stop reopening it.
Try this the next time you catch yourself replaying the same moment.
Pause and name the scene in a single sentence.
Name what you will miss in the next hour when you are not present.
Decide what you will do instead, right then. Take a walk. Call a friend. Shower. Write. Anything that returns you to your actual life.
Do this the moment you usually spiral.
Ask: What would change in your days if you stopped giving that scene airtime?
Photo Op + Action Opportunity: What You Almost Missed
Photo Credit: iJseven Misha Pavchuk
Photo Op
Take a photo right after a moment you almost missed. Not the thing. The moment.
Laughing at something that surprised you, catching yourself listening instead of rehearsing, feeling relief for a couple of seconds, noticing a look on someone’s face, realizing you were safe, and tasting your first sip of coffee.
Take a photo that captures that moment. The person you were with when you laughed, the place you were sitting when you listened, the view you saw when you felt relief, the corner of the room where you noticed the look on someone’s face, the spot where you realized you were safe, or your hand on the mug after your first sip of coffee.
Action Opportunity Under the photo, write a short paragraph:
Start with: “I almost missed ______.” Then add: “I came back when I ______.” Close with: “Next time the replay starts, I will ______.”
Journeys That Quiet the Replay
These journeys are designed for people who care about how time is spent and which moments stay.
For open skies and spacious days→ Take a Shot at Happiness: Northern New Mexico
April 8–12, 2026 | 5 Days | All-Inclusive | Limited to 10 Guests
Photo Credit: Ted Turner’s Vermejo
This is a wide-open reset with room to breathe and room to think. Days are built for pace and reflection. Guided camera phone photography and reflective journaling are your practice, so you return home with more than just memories. Return with a clearer read on what has been looping in your mind, what you are ready to release, and what you want to protect moving forward.
If you have been carrying the end of a relationship, an unresolved conversation, or a season of self-blame, New Mexico gives you space to set it down without turning it into a big production.
For those drawn to a sacred space → Take a Shot at Happiness Nepal
Dec 8–14, 2026 | 7 Days | All-Inclusive | Limited to 16 Guests
Photo Credit: Dwarika's Collection
Nepal changes your perspective quickly. Sacred sites, daily rituals, mountain air, and the calm presence of devotion shift your internal tempo. This journey is for travelers who want meaning that stays grounded: real experiences, guided reflection, camera phone photography, and journaling prompts that help you make peace with what remains unresolved and choose what comes next.
Come home with a personal set of images and pages that mark the turning point, not just the trip.
Photo Credit: National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions
Celebrating the Artisan
National Geographic–Lindblad Expeditions is supporting artisans where travel, conservation, and handcraft meet.
I am always looking for the small details that make a trip feel personal. The kind of detail that connects you to a place in a real way, not a surface way.
On board, Global Galleries is a thoughtfully curated collection of artisan-made pieces—jewelry, textiles, ceramics, and other handcrafted work—sourced from regions you visit, plus a few you may still be dreaming about.
What I appreciate is that this is not a souvenir table. These pieces come from real makers and real traditions. A portion of proceeds supports Lindblad Expeditions’ Artisan Fund (launched in 2007), which helps provide training, workspaces, equipment, and educational opportunities for local artisans.
On select expeditions, including voyages in the Galápagos and the Amazon, you may even meet some of the artisans whose work is featured on board. That is when it shifts. You stop thinking about what you bought and start thinking about who made it, how they learned, and what their craft carries forward.
PONANT EXPLORATIONS Voyages in Alliance with Smithsonian Journeys
These voyages are expedition travel with depth. With Smithsonian Journeys Experts on board, the experience tends to broaden your perspective on people, history, and place. That widening effect helps the replay quiet down. Return home with a fresh view and a broader lens, which makes it easier to release what has felt stuck.
Monaco delivers intensity, beauty, and pure adrenaline. This experience is curated so you can stay present for the weekend rather than manage logistics. It is a powerful pattern interrupt: high focus, total immersion, then a clean return to ease. If your mind has been stuck on the same story, this kind of concentrated, sensory experience can reset your attention fast.
For the journeys I personally host — New Mexico and Nepal — your experience does not end when you fly home.
Included in each of these trips is my happiness online course, Take a Shot at Happiness: A Happiness Explorer’s Journey(a $997 value). It is there to support you in the weeks that follow, as your photos and notes move from “trip memories” into a living set of prompts you can return to. You will have a clear way to keep working with what you discovered, so the journey continues living on long after you unpack.
Why Travel with Me
I pay attention to how people arrive in a place, and how they leave it. What they notice. What they stop doing once they have space again.
I choose places where you can hear your own thoughts again. Where the day has room for an unplanned moment. Where you can look up and actually take in what is around you. In those settings, your attention becomes unavoidable.
This is travel for people who care about how their time is spent and which moments stay with them.
P.S.:I write this newsletter for people who love travel and who care about how it changes them. Each issue includes a simple practice inspired by my book Take a Shot at Happiness — photography and a few lines of writing — to help you notice what is worth keeping.
Know someone who would enjoy these journeys? Please feel free to forward this along.
If you are reading this because a friend shared it—welcome. I send this newsletter twice a month.
Seller of Travel Registration Number, California Office of the Attorney General: 2161028-70
Sojourn to Happiness
Sign up for Maria Baltazzi’s Take a Shot at Happiness newsletter for practical ways to bring more happiness and meaning into your life. An award-winning author and happiness explorer, Maria shares science-backed tools to shift unproductive thoughts, stay inspired, and grow in fulfilling ways. Her book, Take a Shot at Happiness, has won multiple awards, including the Independent Press, NYC Big Book, and Nautilus Book Awards. She uniquely integrates camera phone photography and journaling as tools for self-reflection and personal growth. Each issue offers insightful advice, uplifting quotes, and simple ways to enhance your wellbeing. Join a community that values purpose, creativity, and happiness.
