If Lost Start Here is a guide for the anxious, curious, lonely and lost. Featuring everyday places and at-home prompts designed to help you live a life that feels good.
About
You are The Conscious Creative
You love art, design, music and making. You are a free and creative thinker with more ideas than hours in the day.
You thrive when dreaming, making, doing–giving life to your passions. While the rest of the world is caught up with deadlines and appointments (which, ok, you have those, too) you’re busy working out how to bring beauty and levity and light to the world around you.
When the world feels like too much, you turn inward to feel your way through, getting lost in the lyrics to your favorite song, finding hope in the artistic works of the people you admire.
Your greatest gift is your ability to make sense of the world around you through creative means. Your empathy and compassion are what carry you through your days and grant you a unique perspective on the state of the world.
While you make the world a brighter, more beautiful place, you’ll have to be careful in the lulls. You might feel stuck if you’re not in a generative phase. Your value is greater than anything you could produce in this world. It’s important to remember, as with everything, there is an ebb and flow to creativity and productivity. You cannot always be making, doing, dreaming. Sometimes you have to rest.
Need a little push towards taking care of yourself in a new way?
Explore These Selections, Curated Just For You
A Podcast You Might Love
Creative Pep Talk with Andy J Pizza
Creative Pep Talk aims to help creative people thrive, both personally and professionally. In addition to being an incredible (and successful) illustrator, Andy is also open about his struggles with ADHD and other mental health issues. For those of us who can be left feeling bogged down and uninspired by our own mental health woes, this podcast serves as both inspiration and information. More than just understanding that leading a creative life is possible, Creative Pep Talk helps us to shift our perspectives and rediscover our lost motivation.
An Inspirational Peson to Follow
We love Lisa Congdon not only for her bold and unique artistic style, but for her honesty and openess in discussing her path to living a creative life. Lisa didn't begin drawing or painting until she was 31 years old. And didn't work professionally as an artist until her late 30s. In her book "A Glorious Freedom" she chronicals the stories of other women who found their passions after the age of 40 and serves as an incredible inspiration for those of us who are just finding our creativity. It's never too late!
A Book To Lose Yourself In
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
While the title "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" is rather self-explanatory, what this book holds is actually more than we could have imagined. Bringing along her unique empathy and passion, Elizabeth Gilbert's book is a call to action for everyone of us, imploring us to step outside of our comfort zones, and into a life that is as bold and creative as we are.
Something We Made To Help You Through Your Day
Our "Probably The Best Day Ever" Daily Planner
To help you do more of what you love (making/dreaming) without totally abandoning the things you simply have to do (read: open the mail, pay bills, go to the dentist).
A Poem For You, by Mary Oliver
(but you can pretend we wrote it for you):
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
How to Use this Information
If Lost, Starts Here takes an expansive view about how to approach our emotional and mental well-being. Our project explores Ten Key Pathways to Wellness.
As The Conscious Creative, we think you'll love our Creativity and Culture Pathway. Next, you might head to Mental Well-Being to discover how other creatives are using their gifts to bring something greater to the world.
Because you value creating for the sake of creating, you may also love our Untethering Pathway. If you're looking to expand to something more challenging, explore a category that feels unfamiliar, maybe for you that is Nature? Or perhaps Mind-Body Connection.
Who are we?
Hi, we're Claire and Amanda
(founders of online guide: If Lost, Start Here)
If Lost is a resource that combines everything we know about what people need in order to thrive, with all of the places, projects and initiatives that exist to meet those needs.
We believe that in shifting our daily lives in small ways, we have the power to transform our worlds; that strong communities make for happy individuals; that there are places in the world that can hold us, shape us, bring us back to ourselves . . . even when it feels we’ve forever lost our way.
Over are the days of navigating life alone. Let’s find our way, together.