Learn Hardcore Russian: Я чувствую себя свободно, когда гуляю в парке.

Я чувствую себя свободно. – literally “I feel myself freely.”
Without себя, я чувствую свободно sounds incomplete or odd, as if you’re talking about how you sense things in a free way, not about your internal state.

So чувствовать себя is the standard construction for “to feel (in some way)” about yourself, similar to English “I feel good / bad / free.”

What case is себя, and why is it used here?

Себя is the reflexive pronoun (“myself / yourself / himself / herself / ourselves / themselves”) and it has no nominative form. In this sentence, it is in the accusative case.

The verb чувствовать (“to feel, to sense”) is normally used with a direct object in the accusative:

чувствовать боль – to feel pain
чувствовать холод – to feel cold

When the object is the same person as the subject, Russian uses себя:

я чувствую себя свободно – I (subject) feel myself (object) free(ly).

So себя is required to show that the one who feels and the one who is being felt (so to speak) are the same person.

Why is it свободно (adverb) and not свободным (adjective)?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

Я чувствую себя свободно.
- свободно is an adverb.
- It describes how you feel, the manner of your state: “I feel free(ly), relaxed, at ease.”
- This sounds more about your inner sensation of freedom, comfort, lack of constraints.
Я чувствую себя свободным.
- свободным is an adjective in the instrumental case, agreeing with implied (человеком) – “I feel (like) a free person.”
- It emphasizes your status/role: “I feel (as if I am) free / a free person,” sometimes more about actual independence or lack of obligations.

In everyday speech, чувствовать себя + adverb (как? свободно, хорошо, плохо, уверенно) is very common for talking about how you feel subjectively. Using свободно here is natural and idiomatic.

Could I say мне свободно, когда я гуляю в парке instead?

You could, but it sounds unusual.

Russian often uses мне + (adverb) for physical or emotional comfort:

мне хорошо – I feel good
мне плохо – I feel bad
мне уютно – I feel cozy

However, мне свободно is not idiomatic in this sense. To talk about feeling free, Russians usually say:

я чувствую себя свободно
я чувствую себя свободным
я свободен, когда гуляю в парке (for a man)
я свободна, когда гуляю в парке (for a woman)

So in your sentence, я чувствую себя свободно is the natural choice.

Why is there no я in когда гуляю в парке?

In Russian, the subject pronoun (я, ты, он, она, мы, вы, они) is often omitted when it’s clear from context or from the verb ending.

гуляю has the -ю ending → 1st person singular present → “I walk / I’m walking”.
In the first part we already have я чувствую себя свободно, so it’s clear that the “I” continues.

So these are all grammatical and natural:

Я чувствую себя свободно, когда гуляю в парке.
Я чувствую себя свободно, когда я гуляю в парке.

Adding я in the second clause is possible, but not necessary. Leaving it out is very typical in spoken and written Russian.

Why is there a comma before когда?

The sentence has two clauses:

Я чувствую себя свободно – main clause (independent).
когда гуляю в парке – subordinate clause of time, introduced by когда (“when”).

In Russian, a subordinate clause introduced by когда is normally separated from the main clause by a comma:

Я чувствую себя свободно, когда гуляю в парке.
Когда я гуляю в парке, я чувствую себя свободно.

So the comma is required by the rule for complex sentences with a subordinate time clause.

What is the difference between гуляю, иду, and хожу? Why use гуляю here?

These verbs all involve movement, but with different meanings:

гулять – to walk around, stroll, wander; often for pleasure or leisure.
- я гуляю в парке – I’m strolling / walking (for fun) in the park.
идти – to go / walk (one-directional, right now, in one movement).
- я иду в парк – I’m going (on foot) to the park (one direction, in progress).
ходить – to go / walk habitually or repeatedly; multi-directional.
- я хожу в парк – I (regularly) go to the park / I go there (and come back).

In your sentence, the focus is on enjoying being in the park, not on the destination or habit, so гуляю (“stroll, take a walk”) fits best: it emphasizes relaxed, aimless walking.

Why is it в парке and not по парку? What’s the difference?

Both can be used, but they have different nuances:

в парке (prepositional case) – “in the park,” focusing on location:
- Я гуляю в парке. – I walk in the park (that’s where I am).
по парку (dative case after по) – “around the park / through the park,” focusing more on movement within the area:
- Я гуляю по парку. – I walk around the park, here and there within it.

In your sentence, в парке is more neutral and common. по парку would slightly emphasize moving around inside the park, wandering through it. Both are grammatical; в парке is just the most straightforward option.

Can I change the word order to Когда гуляю в парке, я чувствую себя свободно? Is there any difference?

Yes, this word order is completely correct:

Я чувствую себя свободно, когда гуляю в парке.
Когда гуляю в парке, я чувствую себя свободно.

The meaning is the same. The difference is just in emphasis:

Starting with Я чувствую себя свободно…: emphasizes your feeling of freedom.
Starting with Когда гуляю в парке…: emphasizes the circumstance (the time/situation) that leads to that feeling.

Both are natural; you can choose depending on what you want to highlight first.

Could we use perfective verbs here, like почувствую or погуляю?

Not in this exact meaning. Here we’re talking about a general, repeated situation (“whenever I walk in the park, I feel free”), so Russian uses the imperfective present:

чувствую (from чувствовать) – imperfective, present
гуляю (from гулять) – imperfective, present

Perfective forms would change the meaning:

почувствую – “I will (at some point) feel” (a single event in the future).
погуляю – “I will take a walk (once, for a while).”

For a general truth/habitual action, stick with чувствую and гуляю.

Would the sentence change if a woman says it instead of a man?

In the present tense, the verb forms don’t show gender, so the sentence stays exactly the same for both men and women:

Я чувствую себя свободно, когда гуляю в парке.

If you used an adjective instead of the adverb, gender would matter:

Man: Я чувствую себя свободным, когда гуляю в парке.
Woman: Я чувствую себя свободной, когда гуляю в парке.

But with свободно (adverb), there is no gender, so nothing changes.