Hello, my name is Maria Baltazzi. As you might already know, I am one of the executives here at Stage 32. While I have spent years as a producer, I also have a background in wellbeing, specifically in happiness studies and mindfulness. I know most of you will get the mindfulness part. However, why happiness? Sounds kind of fluffy. Well, it is not and is essential to your overall wellbeing, or wholebeing, as I like to say and teach – your mind, body, and spirit. The sum of these three components, the whole package, impacts our ability to show up and be creative.

The truth is that we all want happiness, yet it often illudes us. Why? Because we are not taught the skill of being happy. Yes, happiness is more than a fleeting state of mind or emotion. It is a way of being and a skill that can be learned. Even the Dalai Lama talks about how happiness can be learned which is backed up by studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by renowned neuroscientist Richard Davidson. And it all starts with a choice. The choice to be happy and then you do something about it. You back up that choice with intentional activities that will increase your wellbeing, ergo, your wholebeing. Nothing will happen if you do not make this choice or if you do not want to create your own happiness. Like anything, you must want "it" and actively do something about "it."

Wholebeing Journey

I began my wholebeing journey as an act of self-preservation to manage our industry's stressful demands better. Candidly, I cannot say that today, even with everything I know and practice, I always handle things gracefully and calmly. I can say that I am far better equipped to manage difficult situations. I spend much less time in the upset, the frustration, the anger, the disappointment, and when I come out on the other end (because usually, "this too shall pass"), I am more emotionally in-tact. I can also say that I feel the most content and clear about my purpose than ever before. All because I chose to be happy and did something about it, and I continue to do this every day throughout the day.

At first, I read books, then took courses, which led to certificates, and eventually a PhD in Conscious Living (and I have an MFA in film, too), then wrote a book, Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want, and I am now writing this blog for the Stage 32 community. So, you may have heard a time or two...

Be happy!

Well, for many, perhaps including you, being happy is something you would want to be yet put off for another time when you are less busy, less overwhelmed, less stressed. You will do it when you have the luxury of extra time.

Newsflash.

Your overall happiness and wellbeing are not luxuries. They are necessities. It makes this realm, our planet, a better place, along with you and your relationships in it. Being Happy (big H), like most things in life, is a matter of choice. You can choose to wallow in the overwhelming, in the stress of day-to-day life, the pain of the past, the worry about the future, or pick the alternative: Happiness. Then, actively do something about improving the quality of your life, reframing your thoughts and developing habits that support your wellbeing holistically in mind, body, and spirit, ergo, your Wholebeing.

The Power Of Choice

Philosophers, mystics, sages, and spiritualists over the millennia and into contemporary times all talk about the power of choice. Science backs this up more and more. Our conscious awareness informs our thoughts and actions. In My Viewfinder of the world, your level of awareness plus conscious choice equals your Happiness and Wholebeing (big W too). You can be the conscious creator of being Happier.

When I speak about Happiness, it is not in the context of looking at life through rose-colored glasses, nor always having a song in your heart. It is not that you no longer feel life’s hurts and disappointments, or that anger and frustration cease to exist. Instead, Happiness means that, on balance, you feel aligned with your choices and living your purpose on purpose. What do you value most, the virtues and qualities in harmony with how you are present in the world, your decisions, and what you ultimately aim for in life? You also have emotional and mental tools to help navigate challenging times. Happiness is resilience wrapped in hopeful packaging.

We talk a lot about our wellbeing, Happiness, or lack thereof, because we all want this. We talk about the “Pursuit of Happiness.” It is even seeded in our country’s Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right endowed by our Creator. To me, Happiness is not a pursuit, like it is a commodity. It is not something you check off your list as being done. It is never done because it is something you continually create and develop throughout your life, changing and evolving as you do. The repeated, thoughtful, purposeful development of one’s virtues and qualities (more on these in future blogs) will improve the quality of life. These values define how you see, react, and move through the world, acting as a Happiness reservoir from which you can always draw, enabling you to productively meet the joys of life, and its challenges, as they rise and fall.

So.

Ask yourself one critical question: Do you want to be Happy? The choice is yours to make; indeed, it is. Because whether you realize it or not, you have conditioned, accepted, or unknowingly limited your state of Happiness. How? By the influences of your outer sphere of family, friends, and community, which directly impact your belief system. Your belief system sets the governor on your level of Happiness and, therefore, the condition of your life. All of which can change if you are willing to put in the effort.

Happiness: The Unconditional Choice

Happiness should be an unconditional choice, not one based on other people or circumstances that will inevitably happen. Your plane will get delayed. Someone will show up at a party in the same outfit. The stock market will have its bear days. Nevertheless, you consistently choose to be Happy without any what-ifs, ands, or buts—no qualifiers. When you choose to be Happy for now and always, you put yourself on a path to enlightenment. Change your thoughts, change your life. It is that simple, which brings us to the other point to keep in mind, one that already exists inside of you. It is your Happiness Set Point, which is influenced by several factors.

According to leading Happiness researcher Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California Riverside, 50 percent of your Happiness is determined by a genetic set point passed on from one or both of your biological parents. It is a potential state of being baseline that you return to no matter how good or bad it gets. Your life circumstance defines 10 percent. Forty percent is determined by how you think, actions resulting from your thoughts, and intentional activities. The key is the remaining 40 percent that is within your control. So, if you want to be Happy, develop Happy people’s habits, virtues, and qualities. That means you are taking control of your thoughts and emotions. You are going out into the world, making things happen, and achieving something. You are not just sitting around depressed, accepting an unfulfilled life as your lot. Really take in that your thoughts and actions profoundly impact your level of Happiness. More so than your Happiness Set Point or life circumstance. This point is hugely significant to everything else that follows [in future blogs.]

The other notable part about one’s Happiness Set Point is that your genes determine 50 percent. However—this is a critical—your brain’s hardwiring is dramatically influenced by your behavior and experiences and how you perceive them, which are not defined by your genes. For your genes to fully express themselves as a low or high Happiness Set Point, they must be in the right environment to turn on. So, in fact, you can do a great deal to improve your level of Happiness by way of conscious, intentional, purposeful activities—and this is the crux of [this blog.]

So, step one is choosing to create the life you want consciously. Step two is intentionally doing something every day to level up your wholebeing, to level up your creativity. I look forward to supporting your writer's journey.

“Happiness is a joyful conscious choice you can make in every moment of your life.”

—Maria Baltazzi, PhD, MFA

Coming October 10th, you can preorder Maria's upcoming book (published by Post Hill Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster) Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want. Amazon l Barnes&Noble l GoodReads

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