This week we share Sarah’s story.
Sarah’s mission is simple: to share the benefits of kindness far and wide. She is the heart and hands behind 1000 Hearts, a global kindness movement that has grown from the idea that a small, handmade object can carry hope and connection. Her handmade pocket hearts have been shared at hospitals and hospices, crisis centres, schools, and workplaces. They have travelled to places impacted by violence, natural disasters, and loss, and provided comfort to children in foster care, patients undergoing cancer treatment, frontline workers, and families separated by war and tragedy.
Simple acts of kindness really can create profound ripple effects across the globe.
With a background in psychology and counselling, Sarah has spent years in the not for profit sector supporting people through life’s toughest moments through organisations like Lifeline, CanTeen, and Cancer Council Tasmania.
Beyond the hearts, Sarah advocates for psychological well-being, social connection, and sustainable practices, ensuring that 1000 Hearts promotes eco-friendly materials and responsible crafting.
In this story:
🧵 How helping others through handmade hearts became a journey of self-healing.
💔 The grief that society doesn't acknowledge.
🥹 A powerful story of how kindness can literally save lives.
— Written by Sharon Brine and brought to you by Kintsugi Heroes and Women for Purpose.
Q: What inspired you to get involved in the not for profit sector?
A: I think it was always part of me, this drive to make a difference. I was about 6 or 7 when I asked my stepmum, "What's a job I can do that helps kids like me who have been through something tough?"
From that early age, I had this sense that I wanted to make a difference because I'd experienced something difficult—this was around my mum’s mental illness. I wanted to help other people who had gone through the same kind of pain as me.
Leading with purpose and holding values at the forefront of my work has always been the most important thing for me to feel that my work has integrity.
Q: When it comes to career decisions, purpose and integrity seem to trump profit for you. Was there a defining moment when you realised this was your non-negotiable?
A: I remember a specific moment when I started 1000 Hearts where I wouldn’t compromise purpose for profit. Someone suggested that I get the hearts mass-produced in China to reduce costs and labour. And I had this visceral response, a real hard no because that wasn’t what 1000 Hearts was about.
I remember telling a friend at the time, "I would rather not do it than do it like that."
I felt like part of the journey of starting something that’s not about money, like 1000 Hearts, is working through challenges that arise even when financially it’s harder.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I've never considered financial implications when making career decisions, but that's never been the driver for me. I've never taken a job because it would earn me more money. In certain situations, I've actually taken jobs that paid me less because I wanted that role more, or it had more meaning for me.
There are plenty of people who would think that's a foolish way of going through life. But it works for me, and I'm proud of it. This approach aligns with my values.
Q: You made the leap from a well-regarded charity to running your own social enterprise full-time in 2024—that's a huge transition. What inner narrative did you have to rewrite that helped you take that leap?
A: There were a couple of narratives I had to shift.
The first was around how I make changes. In 2023, I did a leadership course that was different to any other I'd encountered. It was very much about the person as a leader rather than leadership models or frameworks. Through that course, I learned that my change style was quite sudden and could be quite jarring for the people around me. That was a huge learning.
So when I started thinking about leaving Cancer Council Tasmania—where I was Director of Supportive Care in a very stable, well-paid position that I loved—I consciously took at least four months just to think about it. I consulted with a lot of people and gave a heads up to everybody in my inner circle that I was considering a change. I didn't want to be sudden anymore. I wanted to really take my time.
The other big narrative shift was around what success looks like. I was already successful in many people's eyes: I had a high-level position in a well-respected charity, was earning good money, and living a lovely life. But when it came to 1000 Hearts I had to shift my thinking around. What if 1000 Hearts doesn't make money? What if it doesn't survive? What if I make this big change that impacts other people and it doesn't work? Will that be a failure?
I really had to lean in to some of my core values which are courage and independence, and doing something that's just mine. I had created 1000 Hearts and I wanted to honour that creation.
1000 Hearts had to step up from being a side hustle making a little money through an Etsy shop to paying its own way. That was a massive shift and I had to consider if this doesn't make money or doesn't continue, is it still worth taking the leap?
In the end, for me, it was.
Q: When you launched 1000 Hearts in 2016, you were going through a separation and rebuilding your life as a single parent. What did that experience teach you that no self-help book ever could?
A: Lived experience is so much different to anything you can read in a book. And my experience during that time taught me about the real, deep grief that no one talks about when it comes to divorce.
Divorce is seen as something common—people go through it and get through it. But I don't think the grief of divorce is honoured in our society.
My marriage breakdown happened because I felt I needed a different pathway to what my husband and I were on. I loved him, we loved each other, and it wasn't a situation where there was a particular fault. I just really needed to make my way in the world on my own for a while at the time.
But choosing what I needed came with a huge cost. There was a lot of grief for me, my husband and our kids. And a lot of change and transition.
I learned the hard way that sometimes taking care of yourself means destroying the current status quo, even when it's a good situation that many people would have stayed in.
I grieve for that family, the marriage, the love, the young couple we were, those broken dreams, the impact on our kids. But sometimes you feel like you have to pack away your grief and not really talk about it because it's not understood.
My partner’s wife died, and when he tells people that, the response he receives is so different from the one I get when I say I’m divorced. Grief is only properly honoured in his situation.
No self-help book could’ve prepared me for that, for how silenced that grief can feel when society doesn't recognise it as legitimate.
Q: You've described feeling your own heart healing with each stitch and every heart that was gifted. What was that journey like for you?
A: Sometimes it's easier to help other people, or to be kind to other people, than it is to do those things for ourselves. I think that's how we're raised, that kindness is something you send outwards.
A big part of my journey started with that perception: if I do something for other people, that's going to help me and I'll feel good about myself. But what I didn't recognise until I had the lived experience was how much healing there was for me in hearing and seeing that I was making a difference.
But not only that. As I stitched and thought about kindness, I was almost forced to turn that on myself because you can't sit in a space of kindness for a prolonged period of time and not start to think: “Well, there's a difference in how I think about other people to how I talk to myself.”
That difference started to become quite pronounced. I realised I never talk to other people in the way that I would criticise myself.
So my journey with self-compassion has gone from an intellectual understanding to a deep lived experience. I'm not saying I'm never self-critical, but I’m much better now at talking to myself the way I would talk to others in a time of struggle—with kindness.
Q: Can you share a specific story where you witnessed the powerful impact of kindness in action?
A: I could share so many stories about this, but here's a recent one that pulls together what kindness can do.
At the beginning of this year, we had a tragedy in Hobart where two very young children were killed in a house fire. It was devastating, just a horrible accident. A woman from that community contacted me and asked if I would share some hearts that she could give to the people impacted by those deaths. Of course I said yes.
She needed them very quickly, so we arranged to meet that day close to where I'd been running a workshop. When I met her, we talked about the incident and the impact on the community, and about her work and how kindness can make such a difference in the work we do as leaders.
Without any prompting, she mentioned that she'd picked up her own heart at her psychologist's office. "It's really been lovely to carry it around," she said.
I shared with her how impactful the hearts have been and that I've heard from people numerous times that having a heart has helped them when they were thinking about suicide.
She silently reached out and touched my forearm, then said: "That's what it did for me, Sarah."
We were gripping onto each other's arms, teary in the middle of the street, which is a common thing that always happens with the hearts.
The trajectory of that story amazes me: from reaching out to help this community around this awful grief, to a conversation about our shared passion for this work, to discovering I was unknowingly talking with someone whose life had been saved by the hearts.
Q: Lastly, if readers could only remember one thing about your story, what do you hope it is?
A: That kindness changes (and saves) lives.
Sarah’s mission continues, and you can be part of it.
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn.
Support Sarah’s mission:
Buy a heart to help build compassionate communities through small acts of kindness.
Become a Heartist or get involved in another way that suits you.
Learn more about 1000 Hearts.
At 76, most people are winding down. Lindsay Ziehl is just getting started… Stay tuned for her story next week…