{"id":37583,"date":"2026-10-30T11:44:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T06:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=37583"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T06:16:34","slug":"the-space-we-create-for-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/the-space-we-create-for-one-another.html","title":{"rendered":"The space we create for one another"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been reading The Book of Joy<\/em>, which captures a conversation between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What struck me most was this: here were two people who had witnessed so much suffering in their own lives, and yet they spoke about joy with such conviction. Not as something that comes after the pain is over. Not as a reward for having survived it. But as something that can exist alongside suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found that thought deeply comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because when life is difficult, we often imagine that joy has to wait. But so much of what they speak about comes back to something very human: having someone who listens, someone who believes you, someone who helps you feel that you are not carrying everything alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that made me think about what it really means to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s World Mental Health Day theme is \u201cLived experiences heard: real voices, real change.\u201d<\/strong><\/a> We often encourage people to speak about what they are going through. But speaking is only one half of it. The other half is what happens when they do. Do we really listen? Do we create enough safety for them to be honest? And are we willing to let what we hear change the way we respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a phase in YourDOST\u2019s early journey when things felt genuinely uncertain. We were running low on runway and, for the first time, asking ourselves some uncomfortable questions about whether we would be able to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around that time, messages from people using the platform kept reaching us. People wrote about difficult periods they had lived through, and how simply having a space where they could talk had helped them come through differently. One message said,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our first-ever testimonial on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I still remember how that felt. In the middle of all our own uncertainty, it brought us back to why we had started. We may not have had answers to everything someone was going through, but we had created a space where they could speak, feel heard, and not feel alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And sometimes, that space can make all the difference. Its impact comes back to us years later in ways we never expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I was at the corporate office of Brigade Group and met Harshit<\/a> who had used YourDOST while he was in college. Years later, as an employee, when he saw that Brigade was collaborating with YourDOST, he chose to volunteer for being a wellness ambassador at Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found that incredibly moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here was someone who had once experienced support himself, and was now helping create that space for somebody else. His lived experience had not stayed only a private memory. It had become empathy, participation, and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, that is what \u201creal voices, real change\u201d can look like in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It does not always have to begin with a policy or a large programme. Sometimes, it begins with one person feeling safe enough to share. One person feeling understood. One person deciding, because somebody once showed up for them, that they will show up for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been thinking about this idea of creating space in my own life too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weeks leading up to The Festival of Joy were difficult and gruelling. There was a lot to do, and inevitably, some of that intensity followed me home. Rudra felt it too. In the days before the festival, there were moments when he simply wanted his mama. In the three days leading up to the event, he couldn\u2019t sleep next to me, and I found myself promising him that I would be all his the moment the festival was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the day arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 6.30 pm sharp, he held on to me and refused to let me go. Not that he was fussing or troubling me, nor did he refuse to partake in the festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knew it was his time, and he held me to my promise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when I looked around, it wasn\u2019t just my son who was there along with me and Puneet. My father-in-law and mother-in-law were there. Our mentors, teachers, friends, wellwishers, partners and team members were part of the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rudra with me from 6:30pm on 12th Sep\u201926<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I felt an immense sense of joy and pride, but also something more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always believed that it is our responsibility to design a life we love. For me, that does not mean keeping work, family, purpose, relationships and wellbeing in perfectly separate boxes. Life rarely works that neatly. It means learning to integrate the things and people that matter to us, imperfectly perhaps, but intentionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe joy is part of that integration too. Not something we wait to experience after all the difficult things are finished, but something we learn to notice and make room for while life is still messy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there is Penny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She does not speak, of course. But anyone who has spent time with her at YourDOST will know that she somehow creates space. People sit beside her. They talk. They pause. They become a little more themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I talk to her too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I tell her things. Sometimes I simply sit with her. She never interrupts, never judges, and never rushes to offer a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
And when trusts us with their lived experience, let it change the way we understand, respond, and build.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps there is something all of us can learn from that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do not always need to have the perfect words. We do not always need to know what to say next. Sometimes care begins with creating enough space for another person to feel what they are feeling, to speak if they want to, and to know that they do not have to perform being okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This World Mental Health Day, my reminder to myself is simple:<\/strong>
Listen a little longer.
Judge a little less.
Ask one more question.
Make room for someone to be themselves.
And when trusts us with their lived experience, let it change the way we understand, respond, and build.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because when people feel heard, they feel less alone. And when lived experiences are allowed to shape what comes next, all of us have a chance to build a more caring world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep Rising & Shining,
Richa Singh<\/strong>
Co-Founder & CEO, YourDOST<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi! I\u2019ve been reading The Book of Joy, which captures a conversation between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. What struck me most was this: here were two people who had witnessed so much suffering in their own lives, and yet they spoke about joy with such conviction. Not as something that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,3,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-business","category-marketing","category-yd-diaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37583"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37596,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583\/revisions\/37596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}