Heh. Oh, and it's funny when we start saying, "oh, I'm not like that" until we make things a little *clearer.*
Like excesses? They should include
shopping for me. I will absolutely buy things I don't need, and I'll do it impulsively because it "looked cool in the picture" or "looked cool in the infomercial." It's one reason I got into heavy debt.
I'm almost totally blind to my shadow. When I'm in it, I've completely lost the plot and I don't realize I'm acting out. I'll know I'm upset about something, and I'll suddenly look around at all this junk I don't need...but I can't remember when things began going downhill. Blech.
Things that match my shadow (that aren't as clear cut, but now that I realize it...)
- acting very impulsively, making decisions without thinking them through (i.e., shopping for things I don't need)
- doing things to excess - e.g.: eating, drinking or exercising (add shopping)
- being critical of others, and finding fault with almost everything ( within myself as well)- within myself is sooo key. I don't turn this on to many people, or if I do I don't notice it. But I get so self-critical it's shameful. All of a sudden I'm the slug without a brain.
- being preoccupied about unimportant details and doing things that have no meaning (can we say, internet surfing...? All together now... Also? I frequently discover that it's easy to waste time. I do everything *but* the one thing I'm supposed to do, and I put things off because I don't "feel" like it. But I'm totally stressed out that I'm *not* doing what I need to do, too. Ahh, dichotomy...)
- acting in a very materialistic and selfish way (I put shopping in here, too. Buying things for myself, not caring about the rest of the world's ills, being very internal and exclusive. "Hermit-habits.")
- cutting corners, breaking the rules, and even contradicting the INFJ's own values (not getting to work on time, being passive aggressive, not following through or seeing things through...etc.).
I think what's amazing about all this is, we frequently think we're not in Shadow, when we very well could be. Or we might assume this is "someone else's problem" rather than our own. It's hard for an INFJ to get the help they need when they're in Shadow, though. It's easy to dance around the problem and make excuses for oneself.
Ugh. I think I need to start getting out of my own house and I need to go to the library to work on my writing. Give myself new perspective, and all that.
