What is freedom for you?

 --Ayushi Mal

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."

After a tedious day, I was just watching a flock of birds diving in the sky. It made me question what freedom feels like? Is it being able to just move from one place to another without any restriction or its way more than the assumptions I had back then. Actually, by heart we all crave for freedom and many a times we try to seek it in very irrelevant ways. We just need to pause for a while and ask ourselves what it really feels like? The definition of freedom may vary according to the difference in individualities and that is perfectly fine. One just need to know their soul urge and everything will be fine.

For me freedom is little bit subtle, actually a bit complicated or may be still on the way to find what it is really for me. But I am glad, I have stepped on its journey. Being grown up in a society where everything is questioned beginning with the dress you wear to the choices you make. After being brought up in a society like this, I just craved to act free where I could make my choices irrespective of anything and live the life on my own terms. I just wanted to choose the dress I wear without having second thought. I just wanted to visit any place without having to ask anybody about it. May be that was freedom for me back then as I didn’t have much desire or maybe I took everything on the surface level. I just felt I am caged, though I had wings but somehow, I forgot to spread it. That was me back then, when I hardly thought of anything.

But now I am discovering someone afresh who have laid somewhere dormant. May be my desire has changed but what I intend to feel is just same. Still, I want to feel free but now my focus has shifted to me. Now, I don’t want to control what others think of me but learning to regulate my own feelings. I just want to be unaffected from others judgement. I just want to live for me where I feel relieved. Now I practice more on regulating my own emotions and feelings irrespective of the situation and people around me. But now I have realized that I am captivated by my own mind and needs self-healing.

Freedom is not something which could be handed over but what is been created out of everything. It lies in living the life intentionally by being aware and taking the necessary steps towards it. It simply means to live mindfully free from own waste thoughts and worry of future and regret of past.