os.me Digest: Looking Back with Fondness and Gratitude

Just three days and we enter a brand new year.

This would be the perfect time to look back at the year gone by and stocktake. But we did that back in November when we still had the time to course correct. You can re-read it here.

This time last year, I also wrote a post about taking inventory of life. I offered a few questions in that post to see how we fared.

Those questions, still as valid as last year, are:

•  What are you not proud of?
• What are some things you did this year that you are proud of?
• What are you grateful for?
• What are the things you should have done differently?
• Did you grow in any way — spiritually, career-wise, personally, attitude-wise, skill set, relationships?
• What areas need work?

Sure, answer these for yourself.

For this year-end, however, I have only one question for you:

What’s that one thing you did that filled you with joy? 

I’ll go first. This year, I developed the confidence to drive independently. I have been driving for years but only on residential society streets, at night or early morning. I didn’t have the confidence to take to the actual roads. I took those ‘learn to drive’ classes twice. My father and my husband both sat with me for several drives pushing me and encouraging me to drive.

A few weeks back, I took the plunge!

I drove independently. Boy! Is it liberating? I have had several bigger and smaller achievements, but nothing matches the joy of independence that driving brought me. I don’t have to depend on anyone — no driver, no husband, no Uber. Woohoo!

Another thing that brought me immense joy is the growth that os.me achieved this year. Our editorial newsletter list has more than doubled since we started. We launched the terrific Samurai Council. Many new authors wrote their first articles.

You guessed it, I come bearing stats. But first, here are some must-read posts from os.me bloggers bound to change your life for the better.

Transformative Ideas

Lessons of a Bystander: Pankaj Kumar, CEO of os.me, shares his observation on the community that he has been steering towards kindness and truthfulness. In this poignant piece, he poses relevant questions to the community members urging them to rethink the purpose of their writing and more. 

The Red Blanket: This one is wrapped in the warmth of true friendship. Nandita Basu shares about her favourite red blanket that her friend knit for her. I found it heart-warming in this Dilli ki sardi.

When I First Drove My Car After 2 Years!: Harshita’s story is about courage and determination. She met with a horrific car accident that rendered her bedridden for a long time. But with her stellar willpower she recovered faster than anybody thought possible. And recently, she even drove a car again!

Are Marriages Really Made in Heaven: Rekanshu Dutta is processing the aftermath of his divorce. There is hurt, but there is also peace and a newfound understanding of love, life and new beginnings.

Against All Odds — Stories of Courage: What does courage look like? Perhaps, wearing a patch to correct the lazy eye syndrome when you are six and have school to attend. Or going to Kargil during the war to tie rakhis to our defence personnel. Or starting from scratch after the flourishing business collapsed during the pandemic. Hetal Sonpal has sampled a few instances of courage shared by school kids.

Childhood Trauma: A child’s heart and mind are like Potter’s clay. The myriad experiences leave an indelible impression. Pratikshya Biswal appeals for mindful parenting. She recalls that constant criticism from her parents made her strive for toxic perfection and impacted her adult relationships and self-worth.

You Don’t Need to Be Rich to Be Kind: When she was a kid, Neha Singh met a very kind woman who also happened to be very poor. The woman taught Neha the true meaning of kindness that she has remembered to date.

7 Tips to Master Habit Forming in 2023: The New Year is around the corner and your resolution list is ready. Rajesh Kodukula is here with his suggestions to help you see through those. This year, you will be able to stick to your resolutions, hopefully!    

Watch this Now!

Wisdom from Om Swami

How to Build a New Habit: There is a science to building a new habit. It is also an art to keep it. Spiritual leader Om Swami spills the tenets of the art and science of habit formation. It’s three words. Find out now!

The One Principle: A guiding principle is like a lamp. Dispelling the darkness around us, it helps us make better choices. Read this through-provoking article by spiritual leader Om Swami and make the best choice ever!

Stats & Shout-Out

Here’s looking at the stats quickly:

• New launches: Your favourite platform wears a new look and feel. Besides that, this year, we launched many new initiatives. 
  • We started conducting creative writing workshops — a big hit with you all! It was a delight to meet our community embers early in the morning (5:30am to be precise). We continued our writing friendship and created the OSMe Writers’ Club on WhatsApp to stick to our writing goals and improve our writing game. 
  • We held writing weeks. The participation was impressive despite the prompts being challenging by design. Many of us were able to shut down the self-sabotaging voice inside our heads with our well-written blogs. 
  • After an onslaught of spam posts, we activated our spam filter. Things have been pretty clutter-free since. 
  • We also invited community members to edit the os.me Digest as guest editors. We enjoyed the experience and freshness as much as you did.
  • For the first time ever in the history of os.me, we organised Secret Santa. You all took the joy of giving to the next level with your generosity. Look what it did! It brought a smile to so many faces and so many passed it on by becoming Santa for the next one.
  • Karmic Debt Calculator and Meditation Assessment are two properties that all of you stanned. These two tools are an effective way of gauging one’s progress.
  • And the incredible Samurai Program that took the whole os.me experience several notches higher. It places more power and responsibility in the hands of the community members.This year we had fantastic material to read and enough choice considering 5500 posts were published in 2022 at the last count.
• The one member who contributed the most to this milestone is Karuna Om, who published 356 posts or delish recipes. Alok Singha deserves a shout-out, too, for writing 113 posts that helped the OSME family live life wisely and kindly.  
• A writer is nothing without a reader. And Meera Om has proved her mettle as an invaluable reader by making 5457 precious comments and suggestions to various posts.
• Sushree Diya’s Starting from Scratch is the most-commented member post of 2022.
• Our growing family had 15640 new members joining us this year.
• 385 of you felt encouraged to write your first post on os.me this year. Bravo!

I hope we keep growing speedily and more people find their home in os.me this coming year. Spread kindness like confetti. Live kindly, truthfully and joyfully.

Oh! Don’t forget to tell me: What are you most proud of this year? I’ll be waiting to read the comments.

Happy New Year! Happy New Beginnings!

Until next…

PS: Did you find this Digest useful? Let me know in the comments. Know someone who’d find it helpful? Share this post with them and introduce your friends and family to our phenomenal Karma program.