Join our Guidebook

Our Story

If Lost, Start Here started when the two of us—Amanda Sheeren and Claire Fitzsimmons—began over two years ago to seek out places for happier lives.

We set out to bring together all the different types of places that can help us navigate our lives more thoughtfully. We’ve since visited co-working spaces, bookstores, museums, therapy offices, festivals, meditation rooms, and many other kinds of spaces and places, interviewing entrepreneurs, makers, therapists, and even poets for their perspectives on why they started the places they did and why we might need them in our lives.

  • We’ve included a café that deals with anxiety, a museum that can teach us about happiness, and a garden that cultivates both herbs and emotional health.

  • We’ve introduced our readers to an organization that offers mental health walks, and another that focuses on getting out of our heads and into nature.

  • We’ve featured a festival that encourages the good life, reframed a tourist attraction that has mental health woven through its mission, and highlighted a collaborative art workshop that invites participants to make connections, material and otherwise.

  • Behind the storefronts and white walls, the high streets, and culture districts, we’ve been finding the people bringing these places to life, and closer to people who need them in theirs.

While some are whimsical or idiosyncratic and some are firmly based in the sciences, all of them inspire people in their everyday lives. Together, these places represent the world we want to live in, one that values the independent and unexpected.

The Missing Piece

But here’s what we’ve also found.

  1. Collectively, we’re grappling with our mental and emotional wellbeing, and sometimes, we can feel more isolated than ever as we do so. The things we cherish most in life – connection, meaning, nature, purpose – can seem elusive, and accessing them can be a challenge.

  2. Moreover, the very places we hold dear – museums, cafes, co-working spaces, bookstores, live music venues, and more – are also facing their struggles.

We sit in the gap between the two: getting people to places that we know will make them happier while supporting those places that we want to see in the world.

Our guide is all about uncovering those resources that can lead us to a better place. It's about fostering connection, embracing nature, nurturing curiosity, exploring spirituality, and maybe even taking a break from our ever-present technology. And it’s about doing so while we work to make our neighborhoods and high streets more people-oriented. (On a personal note I know how much this matters - you get a glimpse of this here).

We're continuing to scour the US and UK right now to find well-designed, human-centered initiatives that can help us have more good days. Our focus is on the independent and unexpected: From locally-owned shops and interactive exhibits to breathtaking natural landscapes and those meet-ups you never knew you needed – anything that can help people orientate life to more of what feels better.

Mental Health Mates

& An Invitation

The places and initiatives that we feature in our Guidebook are by invitation only. Over the next few years, we’re on a mission to bring together the best places for happier humans, on this website, and later (as we fundraise) an app and publication.

As we love what you’re doing, we wanted to invite you to join the Guidebook that we’ve started.

You can do this in two ways:

1. Join Our Guidebook

All you have to do is complete this form and send 3-5 high-resolution images to us at hello@ifloststarthere.com, including one of you (we want to show the people behind the places).

We’ll add a profile on your place to the online guidebook and include you on social media. Like this for Find Ubiety, Tribe Porty, and The Frome Kindness Festival.

This is free but we do ask for a donation of £25 if at all possible. This helps cover the costs of running this site and keeping our company going.

By being included here, you’ll join a network of independent places helping us all get to a better place. You’ll also help us create the kind of guidebook we all need right now.

2. Support Our Mission

All the above, plus we’ll highlight more of your work and help more people find you by:

Join the Supporter level for just £69. Once we receive payment, we’ll reach out to you about next steps.

We’d love to include you in our Guidebook to Life.

If you have any questions, do reach out to Claire, co-founder and seeker of spaces, at claire@ifloststarthere.com