Welcome to The Best of Intentions!

A reintroduction and what to expect

Welcome to the The Best of Intentions, a newsletter for inquisitive minds and for anyone who dislikes words such as: self-care and self-improvement.

It is great to have you here and I wanted to extend a warm welcome to new readers of TBOI, and a welcome back to everyone who has been a reader for a little longer.

I wrote an introduction-type post back in November 2023 when I first started this newsletter, but I have decided that it needed an update. Life has changed a little since then, and so it seems appropriate.

A bit about me

I am a psychologist, writer and educator based in Hong Kong. I was a classroom teacher of psychology and sociology for a chunk of my 20s and all of my 30s, and then took a career break in 2023. Yep, the same year I hit 40.

I started this newsletter to act as a creative outlet after experiencing occupational burnout. Plus, I had a bit more free time on my hands!

(Reader - I don’t have children or other caring responsibilities).

Since leaving my previous teaching role, I have been working as a freelance writer and editor. But more recently, I have taken some tentative steps back into the classroom through supply/substitute teaching and rediscovered some of the joy that comes with the role.

What can you expect to find here?

Hopefully, a few things that interest you!

I will be the first to admit that much of the stuff that I share here will not be especially topical, or even necessarily have a link to the field of psychology! I tend to follow my instincts and write about what interests me, but broadly, I am interested in work, travel, culture, health/fitness, and photography.

Here are a couple of posts that I enjoyed writing and that also led to some great discussions in the comments:

On actually doing things

On strength training

Capturing the moment or missing out?

My Third Place

In addition to posts like these, I have collaborated with other people right here on Substack:

• Hannah Ashe - On rediscovering creativity (podcast link in the post)

• Leyla Kazim - How strength training changed my body image (guest article)

And finally…

All posts on TBOI are free, but if you would like to support my writing there is an option to go paid. Although I would be delighted if you could provide your support through sharing the posts and commenting on these 😀

I may offer additional benefits for paying subscribers in the future, but at this point in time, I have no idea what these benefits would consist of (!), so I am just going to focus on the bit that I am in control of… the writing.

You can usually expect to see one post a week. But a heads-up that there may be occasions when there are longer periods between posts, namely when I am away on holiday or have some other commitments.

Anyway, that’s probably enough for now! Thank you for your support and encouragement, and see you next time.

Best,

Sarah