Download the Free Guide: 8 Essentials to a Happier You

Includes a printable framework, self-assessment quiz, and daily happiness tracker.

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What Decades of Research Reveal About Happiness

Maria Baltazzi believes that happiness is not something that simply happens; it is something we consciously shape. As an Emmy-winning producer and certified happiness guide, her work has taken her around the world in search of stories that reveal deeper meaning.  

Her exploration led her through disciplines such as positive psychology, contemplative science, and spiritual practice. The result is a framework based on Eight Happiness Essentials—a set of virtues and qualities that serve as touchstones for a purposeful, grounded, and joy-filled life. Maria developed this practice as an invitation to reconnect with what matters most, and to return to a life that feels more aligned, more peaceful, and more alive.

The Eight Essentials
(At a Glance)

What if happiness wasn’t something to chase, but something you could cultivate?
 
In Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct, & Produce the Life You Want, Emmy-winning producer and certified happiness guide Maria Baltazzi invites you to explore eight timeless principles—what she calls the Happiness Essentials—designed to reframe your inner world and realign how you show up in daily life.
 
Each one is like a setting on a camera—sharpening your focus, balancing your frame, and illuminating your path:
 
Faith brings clarity to life’s details. It helps you trust the unknown and align your thoughts and actions with meaning.
 
Love is the lens of the heart. It mends, nurtures, and enriches everything it touches.
 
Health is your tripod—balancing the mind, body, and spirit so you can feel grounded and resilient.
 
Gratitude is the filter that turns ordinary moments into miracles. It transforms what you have into more than enough.
 
Forgiveness is the aperture that lets light in. When you release resentment, you create space to fully live again.
 
Peace is your steady inner light. It radiates outward, influencing how you move through the world.
 
Detachment teaches timing. You set your intention, then surrender to what unfolds—trusting it will arrive when it should.
 
Abundance is the frame of limitless possibility. When you believe something is within reach, your viewfinder starts to focus in on it.
 
These eight values are not just poetic ideas—they are grounded in experience, research, and practice. They’ve helped thousands reframe anxiety, overwhelm, and burnout into purpose, calm, and joy.
 
🌟Ready to take your own shot at happiness?
 
Download your free copy of The 8 Essentials to a Happier You workbook and begin living with more presence, balance, and meaning—today.
Yes, I Am Ready

Ready to Go Deeper?

Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct, & Produce the Life You Want

If The 8 Essentials to a Happier You gave you a spark, this book will give you the full roadmap. In Take a Shot at Happiness, Maria Baltazzi weaves together decades of storytelling experience, global wisdom traditions, and modern happiness research into a transformative journey of self-creation.

Using the language of filmmaking—writing, directing, and producing—Maria shows you how to take creative control of your own life story. Whether you are seeking clarity, healing, reinvention, or deeper fulfillment, this book will help you reframe the narrative and reclaim the director’s chair of your life.

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