Connection and Community

A day at The Happy Place wellbeing festival — and the ideas I brought home with the tote bag

Glove Factory Studios in Bradford on Avon is a beautifully designed coworking space set in a restored Victorian glove factory. Home to a thriving community of creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, it offers inspiring workspaces, events, and even a wild swimming pond.

Discover an organisation in Wales run by single parents for single-parent families that aims to foster connection and belonging.

Explore 42 Acres, a 173-acre regenerative estate and nature reserve in Somerset offering transformative retreats and nature-based experiences. Swim in the lake, meditate in the treehouse, or nourish yourself with farm-to-table food grown on-site.

Discover a community of friendly and fun-loving women of all ages, backgrounds and fitness levels based in the UK. With Women Outdoors, founder Emma Winters has created an environment where you can be your authentic self, develop outdoor skills, connect with like-minded women and go home with a big smile on your face.

This Colour Friday we’re celebrating the independent shops that we love. Find the perfect Holiday Gift from one of our favourite places.

Discover a haven for your wellbeing in Bath that gives back to others too

This independent Bookshop Week, escape into the Imaginary with some of our favourite independent bookshops.

Looking for a new way to work? Co-founder of London’s Work + Play Freddie Scobey talks to us about how he’s creating a coworking space that’s reclaiming how we balance our lives.

Talk Club is creating the space for much-needed conversations about men’s mental health. Meet Ben Akers, its inspirational founder, who is leading the change in how men think about mental fitness and emotional strength.

We talk to Rachel Ashe about the social enterprise she founded that offers mental health peer support through cold water dips.

Looking for connection in one of the world’s busiest cities? Holly Cooke talks to us about why she started The London Lonely Girls Club and how it can inspire you wherever you are.

We speak to Amber Rich, founder of The Little Retreat and The Big Retreat Festival about how she arrived at these projects, how wellness is now something that we all reach for, and her role as a curator of discovery and awe.

The magic that can happen when a Michelin-starred chef takes on food insecurity, food waste and social isolation.

For curiosity seekers, book lovers, and those looking for an escape into ideas, Crickhowell’s Book-ish makes a community out of reading.

Liverpool’s Potts Coffee gives a plant-based lifestyle a modern outlook and brings compassion to a neighborhood cafe.

Emotional Intelligence isn’t just for us grown-ups. Agata Dela Cruz talks to the owners of Tomato, a consciously designed toddler space in London about how it’s also for our little ones.

Slow fashion meets community and connection at this California-based clothing store and cafe.

In conversation with soberIRL founder Karla Carolina on the power of connection in sobriety.

Which cafes do more than get you started in the morning? Here we’re featuring a handful of cafes that go beyond coffee to our communities, our planet, even our minds.

A space dedicated to bringing fiction into the world, that supports our real lives as it does so.

A civic-minded kitchen classroom in San Francisco to get you cooking whether it scares or excites you.

A cruelty-free clothing store that proves that shopping small and shopping ethically can make you feel good too.

Second Home is stretching the definition of what coworking can be and what it can look like.

We talk to Ali DeJohn, founder of the Makerie retreat, about why self-care and creativity are inextricably linked.

The Museum of Ice Cream might seem like it’s about sugary confections, and equally as sweet images, but approach it as a place of connection and then it becomes something else entirely different.

Bite Unite is one of the co-working cooking spaces popping up in the new world of shared kitchens.

18 Reasons is no ordinary cookery school. Even that vague bucket of a place holder doesn’t entirely encompass what this storefront is.

As humans we’re obsessed by time, with running through our days while also being in the moment. We’re a little confused about it. To get a more balanced, holistic view head to San Francisco’s The Interval.

What makes the beachy Codfish Cowboy unique is that it's filled with pieces made by local residents. There's a very low chance you'll be able to find the item on Amazon later.

Maria Popova, a similar collector of interesting (in ideas rather than things) encourages: “Be curious. Be constantly, consistently, indiscriminately curious.” We had that quote in mind talking to Lea and wandering through Lucky Penny Parlor.

At a moment when we’re all being pushed to do more and more online—more apps, more sharing, more webinars—neve & hawk founder, Kris Galmarini is making the case that actual brick-and-mortar spaces matter.

It’s like a religious revival tent meeting, but for cynics. Instead of their Sunday best, they wear their vintage 1940s finest. Rather than speaking in tongues, they wax on and on about who played what character in whatever desperately underrated classic. And Communion comes in the form of a big dose of black and white on the Castro Theatre’s massive screen.

City Lights Bookstore is a literary landmark and a magical meeting place for intellectual inquiry.

Some of us know our purpose right from the get-go; many of us don’t, we stumble on it. For Alisha Reyes, founder of Sonoma County’s Fiber Circle Studio, it took knitting a pair of socks at age 17 for her life to light up.

Shaping itself very much as a ‘citizen institution’ in diverse and ambitious ways, YBCA is more than an arts institution, it is a container for all our lives.

An emporium for the curious, for searchers and explorers of the page and white space. San Francisco’s Case for Making has been thoughtfully designed to ‘push our collective ideas further about what creativity can be’.

It’s when Susan Orlean writes of the multipurpose function of libraries now to be the spaces that can reflect our public imagination that we feel like signing up to be a librarian right now.

Entering the play space was like entering another world; a world where quality design meets functionality, a world where the color palette doesn’t send your eyes darting back and forth seeking reprieve, a world where kids slide happily down hills with nothing more than pirate hats, books and one another to entertain them.

From the sign above the entrance door that states ‘Cooking is Love Made Visible’, this is a place that has been designed to feed people. Metaphorically and quite literally.

Sidewalk Talk takes the psychotherapist’s couch outdoors, creating the space for anyone to be heard.

We talked to Silent Book Club co-founder Laura Gluhanich about how a simple night of reading with a friend became a global phenomenon.

For the introverts, a book club that doesn’t get you talking.

As men have traditionally struggled to find outlets to talk about their feelings and challenges, the men’s shed movement is starting to fulfill this need for connection.

Solitude is the latest place to be, whether we choose to go there or not.

For Roos Stallinga riding a bike is both an art and therapy, making ourselves, and the world around us, a better place. Ride with Roos in Barcelona, Amsterdam and New York.

We talk to the British journalist Toni Jones, Founder of Shelf Help about the bookclub that became a global movement and why its her mission to make self-help accessible, collaborative and cool.

What makes Sunday Assembly distinct, and widely compelling, is the basic belief system of ‘Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More’. Who could not find themselves getting behind that?

I appreciate so many things about cycle class—the exercise, of course, but also the mental equanimity it brings. I have one of those brains that speeds, and when it’s not speeding it’s caught in a loop.

It’s a Friday morning. You have 30 minutes before work. You could be anywhere in the world. It’s time to get inspired. You are at a Creative Mornings Session.

The distinct yellow pop of this life-managing brand has found infinite ways to weave itself into our lives. And this has all been done without ever really talking directly about our mental health - which is maybe the most genius thing of all.

Feeling overwhelmed by summer pressures? Discover our (Stay-at-home) Wellcation program: a 4-week guide to creating a meaningful and stress-free summer with self-care, connection, and exploration - all from the comfort of your own home.

Feeling disconnected but too overwhelmed to socialise? Here’s how to gently rebuild your sense of community and connection — even when it feels like too much.

Discover how emotions like fear and loneliness shape disconnection and learn practical ways to reconnect with yourself and others.

Discover why independent bookstores, cafés, museums, and unexpected spaces are vital to our wellbeing. Why we’re writing a guide to help you find places that make life feel just that little bit better.

Explore the joy of friendship, why it matters to your well-being, and how to nurture these bonds—especially in the isolating winter months.

Feeling disconnected? In 2025, If Lost Start Here is making connection our word of the year. Read why it matters now more than ever and discover three ways to reconnect with yourself, others, and the world around you.

Discover five key insights on wellbeing, emotional resilience, and meaningful connection from a leading conference on female empowerment. Learn how to navigate self-doubt, improve relationships, and find balance in everyday life.

Feeling disconnected? Small acts of connection can transform your year. Discover simple, meaningful ways to combat loneliness, build relationships, and create more community in your everyday life.