Why We Created a Wellbeing Guidebook (and What It Might Unlock for You)
Discover why feel-good places matter for your happiness. This wellbeing guidebook explores how everyday spaces—from creative studios to independent bookshops—can support your emotional wellbeing and inner world.
What do we really need when we’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of our next step? Not more noise. Not more sitting with our ever spiraling thoughts. Not pressure to fix or upgrade or optimise.
Often, we just need a place to pause.
A space that makes us feel something again.
Somewhere that helps us remember who we are.
That’s why we created our wellbeing guidebook—an ever-growing collection of feel-good, real-world places that support emotional wellbeing, gentle exploration, and the kind of connection that genuinely helps.
Because sometimes it’s the right place that can help us find our way back to ourselves.
Why Place Matters for Our Mental Wellbeing
Wellbeing isn’t just something we do in private with a journal, or during a one-hour class. It’s also shaped by the spaces we move through every day.
Whether it’s a forest walk, a quiet café, a workshop, a cold-water swim, or a tiny bookshop full of soul—the right space can ground us, support us, or simply give us a new perspective.
Science backs this too: studies show that spending time in certain environments—especially nature-connected or creativity-rich spaces—can lower anxiety, boost mood and regulate the nervous system.
Connection Is Part of the Cure
The modern world is increasingly isolating. We’re online, overstimulated, and often emotionally undernourished.
But when we step into the right places—places that welcome, hold, inspire or comfort us—we’re reminded that we don’t have to do everything alone.
That might be a shared table at a local supper club. A movement class where no one cares what you look like. A gallery that sparks something long dormant. These places reconnect us: to others, to our bodies, to our creativity, and to the wider world.
Why Exploring Out There Helps Us Explore In Here
You don’t have to travel far to feel a shift. Sometimes going just a few streets away can spark something powerful.
This guidebook isn’t about bucket lists or big-budget retreats—it’s about discovering destinations for wellbeing that feel human, thoughtful, and accessible. It’s about using the outer world to support your inner one.
Because when you change your environment, even briefly, you often change your story. And that’s where something new can begin.
The If Lost Start Here Guidebook: What It Is
It’s not just a list. It’s a lovingly curated collection of spaces that help people feel better in real life. Every entry is chosen with care—not because it’s trendy, but because it offers something meaningful.
The guide features places that support:
Mind–body wellbeing through movement or stillness.
Creativity and self-expression
Experiences of awe, presence and joy
Know a Place That Deserves to Be Seen?
If you run, own, or simply love a place that helps people feel better, we’d love to hear about it.
Because sharing these spaces matters—and someone out there might be looking for exactly what you offer and what you’ve found.
Want more like this?
Our newsletter offers small, thoughtful ideas for navigating everyday life—especially when things feel uncertain, busy or a bit off-track.
Think of it as your life companion: one part inspiration, one part practical support, always written with care.
Sign up here to receive occasional, meaningful emails from If Lost Start Here.
Why I Collect Places: A Human-Centered Guidebook to Better Wellbeing
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.
There’s a certain kind of magic in finding a place that feels just right. A small bookstore where the owner remembers your name. A café where the coffee is secondary to the conversation. A public park that holds space for quiet moments.
I’ve always been drawn to places like these—the ones that anchor us, remind us of who we are, and offer ways back to ourselves, and each other. It’s why I started Our Guide to Life, a collection of human-centered spaces that nurture our wellbeing in ways that often go overlooked as we rush through our days.
Wellbeing Beyond the Expected
When we talk about wellbeing, the conversation so often stops at wellness trends—meditation apps, self-care routines, morning rituals. And while all of that has its place, what if wellbeing was also connected to where we live, how we shape our worlds, and how we create space for each other.
That’s what I’ve been exploring. Beyond the polished wellness industry, there are places—hidden, local, ordinary—that hold a different kind of support.
The museum that allows your mind to soar and your imagination to expand.
The coworking space that brings people into your days, and not just more ways to be productive.
The bakery that somehow soothes you, even if croissants are a far cry from green juice.
These places aren’t selling a version of self-improvement. They’re simply there, existing in a way that makes life a little softer, a little easier, and sometimes even a little more magical.
Why Now?
We’re living in an era of increasing isolation. Studies show that loneliness is as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. At the same time, the places that have historically brought us together—independent cafes, bookshops, music venues—are struggling to survive.
The irony is, we need them more than ever. We need places where we can show up as humans. Places where we don’t have to earn our belonging, where connection isn’t transactional, and where simply being present is enough.
This is why I collect places—not just for myself, but for anyone who might be looking for a way to feel at home in the world again.
A Guidebook for Everyday Wellbeing
Our Guide to Life is an evolving collection of the places that matter—places that meet you wherever you are and offer something real. It’s a growing map of
Independent and unexpected spaces—community gardens, unusual storefronts, gathering places.
Places that hold stories—libraries, bookshops, cultural hubs.
Third places that aren’t home or work—cafés, coworking spots, creative studios.
Spaces that make room for joy—live music venues, art workshops, immersive experiences.
Some of these places will be in your own backyard. Some might be places you’ve never thought to look. But they all share one thing in common: they make life into something to explore, making us more connected and more human.
A Collective Exploration
But this isn’t just my guidebook—it’s ours.
The places that matter most to you might be different from mine. Maybe it’s the beach at sunset where you exhale fully for the first time in days. Or the record shop where you’ve had the best conversations with strangers.
We all have places that ground us, restore us, and remind us that we belong. And when we share them, we make it easier for others to find their own.
So, tell me—where’s your place? The one that holds you when you need it most? The one that brings you back to yourself? Your happy place? Your calm place?
Let’s build this guide together. Because the right place, at the right moment, can change everything.
P.S. If you run a place that you think would fit in our Guidebook reach out to us. We’ll send you details to apply.
Finding Purpose: The Story Behind If Lost Start Here
Discover how a personal promise sparked a mission to guide those who feel lost.
Have you ever felt like you’re trying to navigate life without a map? Maybe you’ve been searching for answers, or just a simple sense of direction in a world that feels more chaotic by the day.
We get it—because we’ve been there too. That’s why we built this company, not just for ourselves, but for you, and anyone else feeling lost and looking for guidance.
What began as a deeply personal vow to help others has grown into a company with a big social mission.
It all began with a promise. Claire, one of our co-founders, had just dropped her mum off at yet another mental health ward. Her mum’s long struggle with clinical depression and anxiety had reached a point where Claire felt powerless to help. But in that moment of deep frustration and sadness, she made a vow: if she couldn’t fix things for her own mum, then she would do everything in her power to help others who felt equally lost.
That personal story is at the heart of If Lost Start Here—a wellbeing company that stands for much more than just offering advice or selling products. We exist because, like so many others, we know what it’s like to be overwhelmed by life’s challenges, and we wanted to create a place where people could start finding their way back to themselves.
Our mission is rooted in five reasons—five guiding ‘whys’ that shape everything we do
Simon Sinek talks about finding your 'why'—the core purpose that drives everything you do. For us, that purpose is crystal clear. Every action we take, every product we develop, is rooted in five fundamental reasons:
1. Because Claire promised to help.
After that heartbreaking day at the psychiatric ward, she knew she had to create something that would offer real, meaningful support for those who feel lost.
2. Because we’re tired of the noise.
In today’s world, we’re bombarded with messages about how we need to change, improve, and be 'better' versions of ourselves. But sometimes, what we really need is to just accept ourselves as we are—and tune out the noise.
3. Because support matters.
We believe that to be truly self-guided, we also need collective support. Community and connection aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re essential.
4. Because where we live matters.
Our environment—both the physical world around us and the inner world within us—shapes who we are. Exploring both is key to our wellbeing.
5. Because we follow curiosity.
We’re on a constant journey, always asking questions, always seeking new ways to support our community. Curiosity is the engine that drives us forward.
From feeling overwhelmed to feeling supported—If Lost Start Here is about helping you find your way
At If Lost Start Here, we don’t just want to inspire you—we want to help you take real steps toward a better life. Our purpose is to guide you from feeling overwhelmed to feeling supported, from feeling lost to finding your way.
Whether you’re new to us or have been with us for a while, we’re committed to walking alongside you on this journey of self-discovery and wellbeing. We invite you to explore more on our website, sign up for our Well-ish newsletter, and let curiosity guide you, just as it does for us.
Let’s Get Started.
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Sometimes you just need to start (In memory of Carol)
On the many reasons why not If Lost Start Here, and the many (actually one) reason why, by co-founder Claire Fitzsimmons.
There are many reasons for not doing this project, for not starting If Lost Start Here. Want to hear a selection of them?
We are not ‘Experts’.
It makes us want to vomit.
Do projects like this pay?
Husband is doubtful.
Time to get a ‘proper’ job.
Don’t only perfectly-formed people start projects like this?
Someone, maybe many people, will laugh at us.
We are terrified of putting our ideas out there.
When? Like seriously when? And how? Maybe these are the same thing.
But there are many reasons why to work on If Lost Start Here:
We believe in it.
It wakes us up at 2am and gets us to the coffee shop to work on it by 5am.
More about mental wellbeing = matters hugely
It feels so good and right and necessary.
Good things might come of it, for us and others.
It might make people look differently at something, value their own thoughts, to notice who and what’s around them.
So many things in our lives led us to exactly this place.
We’d be moving forwards on one of our major life ambitions: mental health advocacy
Vomit can be cleaned and we’ll be ok even if we blush a little.
We get to decide what we do and where we put our attention, even if we have limited resources.
Not to, would be one of life’s big regrets
We love doing this together.
AND
This is the big one: because of my mum (this is a photo of her from sometime in the 70s—I love how she looks here). For many of us, it always comes back to our mums, doesn’t it?
There was a very clear ‘Before’ for me: I used to be a curator, in a former art world life, creating exhibitions in museums and galleries that I could have only dreamt of, like Tate Modern, the Serpentine and the ICA in London. It was an incredibly exciting career for a northern girl: I wore a lot of black.
Then something happened that forced me to reassess everything. My mum, who had been my best friend and constant in my life, started to lose her mind. Slowly, then completely. Now she struggles to function in the world. No, I don’t know her diagnosis. No-one does. We’re still trying to figure that out, after years and years of appointments, and ER visits, and specialists, and reading. Lots and lots of reading.
But the loss of my mum, even as she’s very much in this world, did this to me: it forced that question of the After, of what comes next. After I dropped my mum off at a psychiatric ward for the first time, as I drove to my childhood home, I made a promise to whatever entity we want to call it, that this would not all be for nothing, that I would work in any capacity I could to change whatever this situation was in which we were finding ourselves now lost. There is only After when you’ve been through something like this.
I’d quit the art world to train as a therapist. My experience with my mum’s mental health, and let’s add here my own, put the question of how we function as people front and center in my life, and it made me feel that this reified environment of conceptually-oriented art exhibitions didn’t connect with my life anymore. I would become the person in the room. I’d seek out a very clear role for myself.
My year at CCPE completing a Foundational Counseling & Psychotherapy course taught me that I was sincerely drawn to this world of therapeutic thinking. But I also wanted to bring that learning together with my curator brain—that roaming, search for thematics on which that profession is built. There’s always that tension in my mind between ideas and how they take their form in the world, in other words, the human piece. That’s the point of interaction that fascinates me the most. Could I make that into that something?
If Lost Start Here began to percolate when I realized that people were starting to do some fascinating things with that tension point. They were starting to build brick-and-mortar places around things like community and emotional intelligence, anxiety and depression, and even the end of relationships and end of life. They were starting to make places that hold our mental well-being in ways that the museums that I’d worked in held contemporary art.
I also realized that was nowhere to go to find all those different things. There were, and are, incredible platforms for great interior design, or travel off the beaten path, or well-being trends, but there’s nowhere to think about all the different places in the world that are now being kind to our minds and making for better lives. I realized that we needed a guide to this new sector, one that combines well-being with curiosity, travel and lifestyle, place-making and socially engaged art, independent cafes, and mom-and-pop stores—all approaches directed at making our lives better, and easier, and more fulfilling.
We’re hoping that If Lost Start Here will become the platform that curates the best places that support us as actual people in our worlds. It’s about that practical search for something else, for whatever it is that represents the gap in your life, for the thing that you need. My hope is that you’ll find what you are looking for and what you need. As I’m trying to do for my mum and me. Maybe we can do this together?
There are various ways for you to engage. By reading our online guide of those places that help with our sanity and our everyday lives, and supporting them as and when you need them in your life. By participating in our guide, contributing the places that you know prioritize our mental wellbeing in new and interesting ways. And of course, by sharing—help us get the word out that this platform exists, that there is help out there. Sometimes, we, you, and I just have to find it.
x Claire
My mum passed away unexpectedly last month. We’re reposting this piece now in her memory. This month, we’re supporting a place dear to mum’s heart, Sandbach Art Room. It helped my mum immensely over the last few years. You can also contribute to our Just Giving Page.
Finding Myself Lost
Why being lost is sometimes the thing that points the way.
Let me tell you a story.
There’s a very personal “why” for me in co-founding with Amanda If Lost, Start Here: While working at some of the most renowned spaces for contemporary art in the world, my mum’s mind began to slip away, slowly at first, then completely. She struggles now to manage everyday tasks and has a diagnosis somewhere around Dissociative Identity Disorder, the parts of herself fragmented, doctors still confused about how to treat her.
I have seen myself in my mum’s situation, enough to shift my life’s focus. I have struggled with panic attacks, general anxiety disorder, and depression, which in London meant not being able to get on the tube some days, and in San Francisco not being able to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve been to therapists and energy healers, attended workshops, and engaged in thought work, becoming an active seeker of strategies that work for me, both in the hope of managing my own mind and preventing the same slide as my mum’s. I think part of me believed I was helping her too - if I could just find the right thing, I could save her (and yes, I’ve had years of learning on that one).
That question of how we function as people, put front and center in my life, meant that the pristine environment of conceptually oriented art exhibitions in which I worked didn’t connect with my life anymore. So I worked on swapping gallery walls for something more intimate, two chairs and slightly worse decor.
A year at CCPE completing a foundational course in Counseling & Psychotherapy taught me many things:: that ideas can shape our understanding of who people are and why they do what they do, that Carl Rogers was as cool as Foucault, that I shouldn’t try to fix my role-playing clients (more rescuing).
But most importantly for this project, I also learned that it wasn’t about just the role for me, the job of a therapist, it was about the room, the therapist’s office, the safe container. That interest would lead to seeking out the very spaces that we curate in our guide.
If Lost, Start Here began to percolate when I realized that people were starting to build brick-and-mortar places and starting initiatives that went beyond therapy (though there are now some great contemporary reframes on that) around things like community and emotional intelligence, anxiety and depression, and even the end of relationships and the end of life. They were starting to make places that hold our mental well-being in ways that the museums that I had worked in held contemporary art and the way that a therapist could hold a room.
I also realized that there was nowhere to go to find all those different things. There were, and are, incredible platforms for great interior design, or travel off the beaten path, or well-being trends, but there is nowhere to think about all the different places in the world that are now being kind to our minds and making for better lives. I realised that we needed a guide to this new sector, one that combines well-being with culture, and includes curiosity, travel, lifestyle, place-making and socially engaged art, independent cafes, and mom-and-pop stores — all approaches directed at making our lives better, and easier, and more thoughtful.
If Lost, Start Here brings together the open inquiry I learned in my years in curatorial practice – creating narratives out of disparate subjects and working across different fields of interest — and the search for spaces that act therapeutically and offer different possibilities in which to contain and explore our lives. This project is founded on the belief that the spaces that we make in the world for ourselves matter in who we are and who we are able to become.
My hope for If Lost, Start Here is that it becomes the platform for finding the therapeutic, bringing together the best places that support us as actual people in our worlds. Here we bring together that practical search for something else, for whatever it is that fills the gap in all our lives, for the thing that we need most and are still seeking. As we build this guide, hopefully you’ll find more of what your looking for to help you navigate your days.
How you can help
Help us create a guide to all the places that can help our mental, emotional and physical well-being (they are all interconnected) and you’ll be helping others find more of what they need in their lives as well.