What does true freedom look like?
How do we frame it?
What does it actually feel like to live free?
Is freedom a dream job? A superstar’s paycheque? Enough stamps to cover a VW minibus? Is freedom about having it all? Or is it even about “having” at all?
Last time, we talked about Fromme and Vervaeke’s ideas around existential modes (meeting our having and being needs) and what happens when we get these modes confused. When we try to be through having, we get caught in Moloch’s web. And so, if we think that to be free we need to have something, we’re just as stuck as anyone.
Freedom is Discipline
“Discipline and freedom seem like opposites. In reality, they are partners. Discipline is not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time… It is often the case that the more set in your personal regimen, the more [free you are] within that structure to express yourself.” - Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
The digital age is the age of infinite potential. We have the whole world at our fingertips and in our pockets. And this can prove as paralysing as it is empowering. Our attention gets pushed and pulled back and forth until we lose ourselves in the meandering malaise of modernity. This isn’t how the free roam. Freedom lies in commitment, not possibility. Something real is worth more than a million potentials.
And what gives substance to potential, what informs an idea in the physical world, is discipline. We have to do the work.
Developing routines and healthy habits that we stick to can be the foundation of a freer life. It starts with the absolute basics. Being disciplined around our sleep1, our diet, and how physically active we are will enhance our capacity to spend more time and energy on the things that matter more to us — the ideas and dreams we want to make more real.
Freedom is Limitation
We’re all limited by time. We’ll never have enough of it to do everything we need to do, let alone satisfy all our hopes and aspirations.
We’re limited by our selves. Our blind spots, biases and shortcomings are all part of what makes us who we are.
Our will also limits us. We only have so much energy and effort to give each day.
So, where’s the freedom then, amongst all these limitations?
Oliver Burkeman, in his book Four Thousand Weeks, provides a partial answer. He tells us to embrace these limits and the inherent finitude of everything. Our to-do lists and bucket lists will never be complete. We can’t know it all, experience it all, or do it all. We can’t live forever.
We can live eternally, however, in what Jamie Wheal calls the “deep now”.2 And this might serve as the other part of our answer.
Freedom is Now
One way we can transcend the limits listed above (for a little while at least) is through experiences of “flow”3. This is central to Jamie Wheal’s work with the Flow Genome Project. They’ve helped uncover the core elements present in these states, which can serve as keys to our existential shackles. They include a sense of:
Timelessness — We don’t feel bound by linear time when we gaze at the night sky, absorbing starlight that’s millions of years old. We might also lose track of time when we write, paint, run, cook, or do anything that pulls us into the deep now.
Selflessness — We can lose ourselves in music or conversation or art. Our neurotic inner critic gets drowned out and we get some [much-needed] peace.
Effortlessness — When I’m gliding through waist-deep powder on my skis, there’s often an absence of effort or struggle, despite the physical challenge. The same thing can happen catching a wave on your surfboard or careening through the trees on your mountain bike.
Anything that can take us out of ourselves, that can cause us to lose track of time, that we find so intrinsically rewarding we don’t need to struggle with, we should engage with more often and more deeply. These are the things that make us feel most alive. This is where freedom resides.4
Oh, What to Do with All That Freedom…
Now that we’re free, we’re free to turn our attention to the big questions like…
Why am I here?
What do I want?
Our answers mould the frame and paint a picture of the free life from our perspective. What’s the free life to you? I invite you to share in the comments.
Andrew Huberman has a great toolkit full of ways we can improve the quality of our sleep (check it out here).
The deep now is when our minds and bodies are fully conscious of the present moment. We’re not disconnected from our physical selves and we’re not drifting towards the past or the future. Jamie Wheal has said the deep now is where awakened consciousness lives. It’s certainly where we feel most free and alive.
That state commonly associated with athletes being “in the zone” or jazz musicians swinging. Although, we all have access to it in our day-to-day.
It’s also important to note that it’s impossible to be in these flow states all the time. As quickly as you realise you’re in it, you’re snapped out of it. Another integral part of Jamie Wheal’s work with the Flow Genome Project is what’s called the Flow Cycle. This places our experiences of flow into a larger context, a four-stage process which takes us through struggle, release, flow, and recovery. Each phase is essential and knowing how to be in each phase is the key to freedom in the rest of our (non-peak) lives. *This is a huge topic in itself, to be unpacked another day.*
"Freedom lies in commitment, not possibility. Something real is worth more than a million potentials. And what gives substance to potential, what informs an idea in the physical world, is discipline. We have to do the work."
This is such a beautiful articulation!