The Beginning of the Escape

After years of chasing "no limits," I finally learned what it takes to build a life of intention, not just escape. (Plus, 3 books for true clarity.)

When I was younger, freedom felt like the ultimate prize. No boss. No routine. No limits. I wanted to wake up wherever I wished, open my laptop when inspiration arrived, and feel the world move around me without resistance.

So I built it.

Online work, projects, crypto wins, and a backpack life that moved between beaches, cafés, and mountain roads.

My early hustle trading crypto and chasing profit in Dubai

I wanted to escape the system—and I did it.

My life became a highlight reel of beaches, mountain passes, and lively cafés. Every airport was a victory flag. Every message from friends and family confirmed it: “You’re living the dream.”

And they were right. I had successfully escaped the system.

But freedom, when achieved, is not a prize—it’s an empty stage.

When Every Day Feels the Same

At first, freedom feels electrifying. You open your eyes to new languages, colors, and streets each week. The air itself feels alive with new chances.

Then, at some point, the spark turns into rhythm. The days start flowing into each other. The sunsets remain beautiful, yet they begin to blur together.

I remember a morning in Thailand. Tropical air, warm light, the exact life I had once written down on paper. But still, I sat there and thought: “Is this it?”

I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t lonely. I was just profoundly empty.

The truth I couldn’t face in a hostel or a crowded market was this: I wasn’t living free. I was running from myself. Every new country was just another place to set up the same internal anxieties.

Viktor Frankl, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning, said it best: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” This realization came like a flash of insight: the external can’t give me the peace I seek unless I do the inner work first.

Peaceful hikes in Nagarkot Heven Hill, Kathmandu

The Quiet Space Between Adventures

I understand why people think traveling the world is the ultimate definition of free. The road has its own kind of beauty—full of stories, faces, and surprises. Yet constant movement also becomes a mirror.

When you see new places each week, you start to notice that your mind travels with you. Remember one evening in Chiang Mai in the lively markets, music, food, and people everywhere. I sat at a small table, smiling at the rhythm of it all.

And while everything around me moved fast, I felt completely still. It was not loneliness. It was awareness. The kind that arrives when you realize that space alone does not define freedom. Meaning does.

Freedom felt lighter from that moment on because I started to understand it from the inside, not from the outside.

As Buddha taught, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

It was when Freedom Turned Into Reflection

True freedom begins the moment you stop running away from something and start moving toward something.

For a long time, I had focused on escaping: jobs, rules, the predictable routine. Then I realized the deeper journey begins once you start creating instead of escaping. Freedom removes excuses—it places you face-to-face with yourself. That clarity is not heavy; it is powerful. It gives you the chance to design life with intention.

Freedom was never a finish line. It was always a mirror, showing me who I am when no one else decides for me.

What Stillness in Nepal Taught Me

Do you want real freedom? Go to Nepal.

Nepal shifted my understanding of life more than any city or success. The people there live with rhythm and quiet confidence. They breathe with life, rather than rushing against it.

While studying massage, I learned about the harmony between movement and stillness. At first, I thought it was about muscles and techniques. Then I realized it was about awareness.

Each day was simple: breathe, focus, connect.

You think it’s the hustle, the movement, the constant change that gives you freedom. It’s not.

It’s the stillness. It’s stopping long enough to realize you’re already free, and you just have to stop running to see it.

The Word That Opened My Eyes

In Nepali, the word Maya means illusion. That word stayed with me.

I spent years chasing these illusions: money, success, freedom, recognition. But it hit me: these things are only illusions.

The illusion only fades the moment you stop chasing and start seeing what is already here. That is where freedom becomes real: not in motion, but in awareness.

Maya taught me that every illusion holds a truth inside it. To see it, you only need to slow down long enough.

Back Home in Austria

I’m back home in Austria now, but I’m not the same person who left.

The mountains don’t feel like limits anymore, they feel like a foundation. The need for constant high and new experience is gone. Now, I wake up to write, to create, and to build something that matters.

My peaceful mornings in Austria

I’ve re-experienced freedom here as a way of being rooted with purpose, not just floating without it.

The Real Meaning of Freedom

The truth about freedom is simple: it’s not what we’ve been told.

Freedom costs awareness. It asks for honesty, responsibility, and courage.

It’s not about endless travel.

You learn that real freedom is not endless travel, constant novelty, or avoiding structure. It is the ability to live with clarity wherever you are. It is knowing when to move and when to stay. When to speak and when to listen.

Freedom is the art of creating peace within movement. I used to believe freedom meant flying higher. Now I see it means landing deeper.

Do you want real freedom? Stop running.

Face the stillness. Find your rhythm. Then, and only then, will you truly understand what it means to be free.

Three Core Principles for True Freedom

Here are the practical shifts that changed my life and can change yours:

1. Shift Your Goal: Stop defining freedom as what you eliminate (a boss, an alarm, a routine). Start defining it as what you create (a purpose, a contribution, a meaningful structure).

2. Embrace the Mirror: Your mind travels with you. If you feel empty in Paris, you will feel empty in Tokyo. The only way to fill that emptiness is through internal work, not external novelty.

3. Find Your Stillness: Schedule regular, non-negotiable moments of stillness (meditation, walking without music, just sitting). This is where you find the rhythm of your own life.

BONUS: Three Books for Your True Freedom Reading List

If this post resonated, these books are your next steps. They focus on landing deeper, not flying higher.

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz- This is the essential manual for internal cleanup. Read this to finally stop taking everything so personally.

• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl- Frankl proves that even when everything is taken away, the final human freedom—the ability to choose your response—remains

• Deep Work-Cal Newport by Erich Fromm- This one directly tackles the paradox of my journey. It explains why people (and I was one of them) find radical freedom so terrifying that they choose to trade it for comfort, conformity, or a new set of rules.

Next Week on The Free Nomad

I’ll share the story of a single conversation that changed how I understand success—and why peace often arrives the moment you stop searching for it. I promise it will change yours too!

P.S. Ready to Build Your Roots But Struggle With Anxiety and Focus?

I share the exact physical grounding practices I use (like Thai massage and ancient tools) to stay focused on my other newsletter. This is the secret weapon for mental clarity.

➡️ Grab the FREE grounding practices: Subscribe to my Touchlines Asia Newsletter here.