Across these voices, freedom isn’t a destination; it’s a practice. It appears as chosen absence—leaving the phone behind and meeting the world unmediated. It shows up as chosen presence—tending a youth garden with a child, anchored to land and purpose. And it arrives as chosen attention—making space for curiosity even while money, health, and deadlines hum in the background.

Two tensions thread the tape. First, freedom versus feeling free: several voices name the gap between the performance of ease and the structural conditions that make ease possible—or impossible. Second, solitude versus community: for some, freedom is sensory quiet and softened obligations; for others, it’s the company of people whose unguarded expression rubs off, reminding us freedom can be contagious.

“So feeling free doesn’t always mean freedom or equate to having freedom. Feeling free is just a feeling.” —Robert S.

Freedom is evolving and improvised, found in small choices that let us reclaim scale and self amid obligation. If freedom is a practice, what will you subtract—or what will you stand closer to—this week to make room for it?

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Transcript

- I don't have moments of freedom, I have moments of autonomy and solitude and sometimes isolation.

- Not having my phone. I was in Mexico, I decided not to take my phone with me, and it was the most liberating, sensory deprivation that I've gone through in a long time. I loved being present. I loved not stressing out about time. I loved just doing everything manually.

- The feeling of free was honestly not even a reflection of how I felt, but it was more so a reaction to how I felt like everyone felt around me. It was the first time that I've been in an environment in quite a while that I was just surrounded by people who seemed to be free in their being and their expression.

- Was when my six-year-old son and I were recently volunteering at a nearby youth garden. We were both anchored in the land, we were filled with purpose and surrounded by community in that moment.

- So feeling free doesn't always mean freedom or equate to having freedom. Feeling free is just a feeling. So feeling free, as I understand it, could just be performative for some of us.

- Being in reality, existing as an adult, there's just so many moments that are filled with issues of and concerns of perception, and, you know, with filling your head with the ideas that people might have of you.

- Time I felt free, I also realized that I don't think there has ever been a period in my life that I'm not worried about something. Paying for X, or a deadline, or my health, or my family. And even in this worry or these quote-unquote, "Burdens," I think I find that my practice and joy and curiosity lead me to feel free in the present or can lead me to feel free in a present.