Do you feel free?

[azzaman333]

I feel trapped in a situation I don't know how to get out of.

 

[warpus]

I feel very free. My take on this is a big biased I guess you could say - or maybe a bit more rooted in reality.. but that depends on your perspective. I was born in communist Poland and lived the first 8-9 years of my life there.. Spending the next year and a half after that in immigration camps in West Germany.

So I can certainly appreciate the level of freedom I enjoy now. When I was a kid I never thought I would live in a place where you are allowed to say whatever you want about the government.. publicly! and travelling to different countries and continents? Are you kidding me? Canada is a paradise if I compare it to my ambitions and expectations as a 7 year old.

The only thing that's got control over me is my job.. in the sense that they have me for 35 hours a week. Thing is that I get 4 weeks vacation, 1.5 weeks during xmas, flex time, I can go and watch Euro games and make up the time later (or not).. or whatever! It's very flexible here and I love it. My plan is to eventually make enough money on the side (legally, of course) to be able to have FULL freedom.. in the sense that I could do whatever I wanted with those 35 hours that I now dedicate to full-time employment.

But do I generally feel free? Yes, very much so.

The thing with freedom is that it's easy to get wrapped up in silly situations and "problems". Do I think that people take their freedoms here in the west for granted? YES. People might feel trapped due to a financial situation, social, emotional, relationship-related, or whatever, and that gets them down. But what they don't realize is how good they have it in terms of the basic freedoms that a lot of people on this planet don't even have.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Regardless of the existence of free will, freedom is the illusion of being free. So I guess I am free, in that case.

 

[kochman]

No, I feel expensive.

Best answer

 

[Terxpahseyton]

You can't get rid of your emotions. The only thing you can do is accept that they're there and not let them control you.

I concur, but interesting that you say that. I remember you posting that you feel the emotion of remorse was useless and would have be shut out.

 

[Farm Boy]

I'm mostly free, but I am a slave to the weather.

 

[Old Hippy]

i work 6-7 days a week and about 10 hours a day plus a couple of hours admin/tendering per night (but lose time between projects), take no public holidays, travel away from home for weeks at a time... (play a lot of computer games to fill the nights)
and feel very free because that is what i chose

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm not as free as I was before I met the love of my life. But that's okay. I think it's acceptable to trade a little freedom for that deep, committed love.

I do have to work, but I don't mind that. Work gives me freedom in a way because it gives me money. With the amount of money I have saved up, I have considerable freedom to do what I want. I don't have to worry about things costing too much. So in a way, work creates economic freedom for me.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Yeah, I'm pretty much free. I can do whatever, go wherever, and whatever wherever whenever.

The only thing constricting me down is that I don't have very much bank, but that's more out of sheer laziness in finding a job than it is outside factors. So yeah, I'm free.

 

[civver_764]

I concur, but interesting that you say that. I remember you posting that you feel the emotion of remorse was useless and would have be shut out.

I didn't say that it should be shut out, but it is useless and shouldn't be given any value.

 

[W|M]

I recently finished my last year at my horrible Catholic school, am set to go to a school which is set to be very open-minded and modern (not to mention secular, which is a huge relief) and effectively have 8 months off school due to the process of moving from the UK to Brasil.

So yes, I feel very free right now.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I recently finished my last year at my horrible Catholic school, am set to go to a school which is set to be very open-minded and modern (not to mention secular, which is a huge relief) and effectively have 8 months off school due to the process of moving from the UK to Brasil.

So yes, I feel very free right now.

Exciting times ahead for WiM . Don't waste it

 

[holy king]

Link to video.

 

[Quintillus]

I voted Very Employed, but did consider Kind Of Employed. In terms of being able to do what I want in society and not having to worry much about the consequences, yes... although societal expectations do influence it in practice. Somewhat it does seem that my employment limits my freedom a bit, and having as much vacation as warpus would help with that, as right now I don't feel like I can really just take a day off for the reason of really being able to use a day off, and still be able to do what I want with my vacation days (travel a bit, see family, visit friends perhaps). But on the other hand, I feel like I could fairly easily decide to switch jobs and move across the country next month if I decided to. So while I lose some freedom from the responsibilities I have, I'm not committed to those responsibilities long-term, and thus am pretty much free.

 

[Mise]

I feel exceptionally free, and that's because I have the financial means and the extensive opportunity to do whatever the hell I want, whenever I want. I don't think you can claim to love freedom without acknowledging that having money is a HUGE part of that.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I didn't say that it should be shut out, but it is useless and shouldn't be given any value.

So how do you accept an emotion while at the same time denying it any sway? I don't see how that should work. You talked about letting emotions control you. But it is one thing to have them control you and another to allow them to give some sort of input.

I feel exceptionally free, and that's because I have the financial means and the extensive opportunity to do whatever the hell I want, whenever I want. I don't think you can claim to love freedom without acknowledging that having money is a HUGE part of that.

I think it is a matter of what course of actions and what possibilities one sees as necessary to feel free - or as counterproductive. For instance an anti-materialistic stance may view the material pleasures of money as a restriction on freedom rather than its enabler.

 

[civver_764]

So how do you accept an emotion while at the same time denying it any sway? I don't see how that should work. You talked about letting emotions control you. But it is one thing to have them control you and another to allow them to give some sort of input.

When I say "accept" I mean accept that it exists within your brain and not trying to fight it(which is impossible), but the input that it gives is not necessarily good or something to be taken seriously, which I find to be the case with regret. Just because something is a natural part of us doesn't make it good.

 

[Angst]

I can't answer the poll properly because my last day at work is tomorrow and I'm starting university this fall.

I feel free as a bird without predators.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I can't answer the poll properly because my last day at work is tomorrow and I'm starting university this fall.

I feel free as a bird without predators.

Oh I know the situation and the feeling

When I say "accept" I mean accept that it exists within your brain and not trying to fight it(which is impossible), but the input that it gives is not necessarily good or something to be taken seriously, which I find to be the case with regret. Just because something is a natural part of us doesn't make it good.

You just circumvented what I said. Can you accept regret and ignore its input at the same time?

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

You can't get rid of your emotions. The only thing you can do is accept that they're there and not let them control you.

How about controlling your emotions?

No, I feel expensive.

Dont worry someone rich will come by...