I was seventeen, taking the back way to the store the way I sometimes did, when I passed a driveway and saw a car I recognized. It was his. I knew whose house it was. That was the moment the rumor stopped being a rumor.
He was my high school sweetheart. Days earlier I had heard he was seeing someone else, and I had waved it off without a second thought. I trusted us far too much to believe it. Certainty like that can feel like Faith. Sometimes it is only confidence wearing its coat.
I can still feel that moment in my body. My cheeks went hot, and my stomach dropped straight through the floor of the car. It had never once occurred to me that he would want someone else. For days afterward I could not eat. I went from a hundred and twelve pounds to a hundred and four. I could not take in that the person I was so sure of had wanted this.
When I finally came back to myself, I held people at a distance. I loved more carefully, and I trusted more slowly.
Eventually, I let myself trust again. My heart broke again, and then once more after that. Across my life there have been three relationships where I felt truly betrayed by someone I loved. Each time, the same choice arrived. Close the door a little more, or stay open.
The easy conclusion, the one my seventeen-year-old self reached for, was that trusting had been my mistake. That if I had been less open, I would have hurt less. In time, I understood that his choice belonged to him. It did not make my trust naive, and it did not diminish what had been real for me.
The same held true of the two felt betrayals that came later. Each one showed me something about the person I had trusted. None of them meant that trusting was something I should stop doing.
This is why Faith belongs among the Eight Happiness Essentials. Each time life gives you a reason to close down, you meet a choice about who you will become next. Faith grows through the small decisions to trust and begin again. Over time, those choices help you return to yourself more quickly when something breaks. The practice below gives you a place to work with that choice.
PHOTO OP + ACTION OPPORTUNITY
A Faith Practice: What the Breaking Made Room For
Personal Reflection
Think of a relationship or a hope that broke in a way you did not choose. Look past the hurt of it for a moment and ask the harder question. What is in your life today that might not be here at all if that relationship, or that hope, had worked out the way you wanted?
Photo Op
Photograph something in your life right now that you love, something that exists only because an earlier hope fell apart first. When you look at it, you are looking straight at what the disappointment eventually gave you.
Action Opportunity
Look at your photograph and write about the path that led to it. What fell apart before this became possible? Follow that thread back and notice where a betrayal or a loss pointed you somewhere better. Save your photograph and your words to the Take a Shot at Happiness App, and let it stand as a record of where trusting again has taken you.
I am decades from that seventeen-year-old girl, driving past the house where my boyfriend's car sat in someone else's driveway. That first heartbreak, and the two felt betrayals that came after it, each did me a backhanded favor. Had any of those relationships held, the life I love now would not exist. I have no regrets, and there is no one who got away.
What I understand now, that I could not have understood then, is that each time I chose to trust again, I stayed available to a life I could not yet see. Betrayal could have closed that door for good. My willingness to keep loving is what walked me through it.
Keep exploring
This month, Faith continues through the Sojourn Explorers journeys below, this month's Best Holistic Life article, and the podcast conversation waiting for you.
Also, you may want to find out which Happiness Essential is the driving force in your life right now. It will either surprise you or validate you.
Faith meets you when trust is tested and travels with you into experiences you have not had yet. Choosing to step toward a place you have never been, trusting it will give you something you cannot yet name, is its own act of Faith. You do the homework, and then you trust what you find. This is one of the journeys currently asking for that same kind of Faith.
Take a Shot at Happiness: Nepal
December 8-14, 2026 | 7 Days | Limited to 16 guests
Seven days in Nepal, a country where devotion is woven into ordinary life. The week opens in Kathmandu, then moves up into the hills of Dhulikhel, where the heart of this journey lives. You settle into Dwarika's Sanctuary in the mountains and take the short walk to Namo Buddha, where monks chant, prayer flags ripple against the peaks, and you share a meal with them as a form of teaching. Mornings hold meditation and breathwork. Evenings bring an arati ceremony of oil lamps and chanting.
Throughout, I guide the same photography and journaling practice you find in this newsletter, the work that helps you notice what is around you and what is stirring within.
In Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want, Faith is one of the eight Happiness Essentials. Through reflective writing, camera phone photography, and simple prompts, the book helps you see where Faith is already at work in your life, often where you least expect it.
The companion app gives you a place to save your images, keep your reflections, and return to the moments that show you what supports your wellbeing.
“
Take a Shot at Happiness is a fresh perspective on happiness. This book is not just a guide; it's an accessible journey through life's essential themes – Love, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and more. Approachable and insightful, it's a must-read for anyone looking to discover new paths to happiness.
★★★★★
Alix Hartley · Amazon review of Take a Shot at Happiness
If this work has supported you in any way, I would appreciate it if you could share your experience with others on a platform you trust.
In my latest Best Holistic Life, I am writing about how to read small signs from the universe. These are subtle inner reminders that you are being guided and everything will be okay. If you pay attention, you will come to know everything needed to support you. “Lessons always arrive when you are ready.”
On The Lindsay Hadley Podcast, Maria sits down with Lindsay to discuss ways to experience a journey redirected to joy, with all sorts of tools that can improve your wellbeing. A profound conversation to understand your inner-self.
Until next month, when we begin exploring Love together.
With love, Maria Your Fellow Happiness Explorer
Maria Baltazzi PhD, Conscious-Centered Living | MFA, Film Emmy-winning TV Producer | Award-winning Author | Happiness Explorer Conscious Luxury Travel Designer Transformational Travel Council Advisor + Herald Explorers Club Fellow National Member Seven Continent Marathon Walker
P.S.
Is your heart still deciding whether to trust again? Forward this to someone whose heart is asking the same question, and remind them that opening it was never the mistake.
If you are that friend, welcome! You can sign up to receive these reflections each month:
These reflections are part of Take a Shot at Happiness, a living exploration of how you think, feel, and choose your way through life. They sit alongside my work designing Sojourn Explorers experiences, where the same values are explored through place, reflection, and meaningful travel.
P.P.S. My Insight Timer meditations, live and recorded, remain available whenever you want space to pause and breathe.
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.
