Learning Your Type | INFJ Forum

Learning Your Type

Faye

Faye

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Mar 9, 2009
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Has learning what your type is helped you in any way? How?

Learning my type has helped me to accept myself more. I often feel the need to give in to the dispassion and cruelty of the world because I feel that people shouldn't be how I am. I feel that way intensely- that I do not fit into the world. Not only do I feel that way socially; I feel it academically as well. But I know that this is natural.

The one thing that really bothers me, the theme that occurs often in descriptions of INFJs, is that of unrealized potential- that we'll sit around our whole lives on projects but never actualize them. I would like very much for this to not be the case for me, but so far, I've made 0% progress toward actually doing anything, except for going to school. Does this scare anyone else?
 
Dragon said:
Has learning what your type is helped you in any way? How?

Learning my type has helped me to accept myself more.
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Before everything else that one.
And I get less frustrated by other people, wich ofcourse doesn't mean that they don't frustrate me at all. Now, I know why am I frustrated:)
Siriously, I think that MBTI, when is used wisely and sensibly, can help us to accept ourselves, to improve ourselves and to learn how to communicate with different people.
 
I found learning my type answered allot questions and made me feel better about who I am and why I am.
 
It hasn't really helped me ...

But learning about the whole MBTI system has
It hurts less when you can understand why someone behaves the way they do or the way they see things
And it helps you communicate more easily. You can speak in their language



I agree, it would be better if we were telepathic and communicated in images/senses vs words
 
My type has helped me some. My cognitive functions have taught me around 100x more.
 
It's helped me understand the whys of a lot of things. Why are my brains made of space? - Fi and Ne, and no Se. How do I organize so well in the darkroom? - good Te. Come to think of it, the cognitive processes have been more helpful than the actual type.

It's really helped me get in touch with Fi more too - I was trying to use Te and Ti to please my SJ parents (because I use Se rarely, if at all...not my forte), while I am clearly a P - I used to test INTJ and INTP while I was at home because of it. I took the test again today and got a high F score for the first time.

Also it's helped me understand why I have the friends I have - all NF types, save for the few INTPs. (My closest seven friends are two ENFP's, one INTP, three INFJ's, and one INFP. My favorite professors are an ENFP and an INFP. I look up to several INFP's as great artists.) On the same note, it's helped me understand why I'm so different from my SJ family. I've always felt a little bit left out - my mom's side is run by the SJ Matriarchal Grandmother (ESFJ, I think), and on my dad's side it's only him, and he's an ISFJ. The entire extended family is SJ. Of COURSE I would feel different. (My dad and I have bonding moments as the E's do their talking and we escape to the kitchen.)

So it is helpful.

ETA:
IndigoSensor said:
My type has helped me some. My cognitive functions have taught me around 100x more.
Click to expand...
bahaha I missed this. I agree completely with that one.
 
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Yes, very helpful for understanding who I am, why I act a certain way and that I'm not alone in this world, it has helped my habits and has helped me know my strenghts and try to work on my weaknesses.
 
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Although I wanted to put a finger down on the functions taking place inside me, I had a a strong uneasiness about being put into a system, and luckily, MBTI and the cognitive processes are very flexible systems that keep room for humanity.

It helps me explain those base functions, I guess I have them stored soundly in my backpack, so I can put more energy into projects and ideas about the world.

Yeah, it really helps with lonely anxiety when you start to figure it all out.
 
It has definitely helped me understand what's rolling around up there, that's for certain. I do think, however, that it's helped me better interact with other people. Understanding what makes me tick and in what ways I see things differently from others really helps to bridge the gap between minds. It has definitely enabled me to resolve a number of personal conflicts with friends and has since prevented more. Specifically that INFJs and most NF types tend to see the bonds of friendship as a loyalty issue rather than mutual benefit or concrete criteria than the other types. So when a friend expresses something they'd like from me, I don't take it like I used to, that is as a suggestion I'm not being a loyal friend, and make the attempt to understand that they are, indeed, being a loyal friend by letting me know.
 
Dragon said:
Has learning what your type is helped you in any way? How?
Click to expand...

Nope. Basically learning my type has just affirmed why I've always felt the way I've been my whole life. MBTI taught me about other types and how to communicate with them since I've never felt misunderstood but I've always misunderstood others, with this instrument I've started to understand why.
 
Dragon said:
Has learning what your type is helped you in any way? How?

Learning my type has helped me to accept myself more.
Click to expand...

Yes.

In accepting myself, I feel my gifts as gift instead of as something shameful to hide from judgment.

I feel that knowing the qualities of my best fit type helps me defend psychologically against those who are simply reacting to my difference.
 
Yes, I was in fact learning myself all over again. Opening doors that I never thought of. I finally got out of the identity crisis because of it.

However, I am still learning/understand "me". And it is awesome.
 
Learning how I tick has made me more aware of my patterns. This has helped me in being more social and in making friends.

It's also got me searching for why calling is career-wise. Granted, I'm not searching for the 'top careers for INFJs' on monster.com but I know, generally, what most likely will not interest me, whereas before I started learning about my type, I wouldn't have had a clue.
 
Dragon said:
Has learning what your type is helped you in any way? How?
Click to expand...

Oh yes. I understand my strengths and tolerate my weaknesses in a whole new way now, after only a short time. Likewise I'm a lot less confused about other people's behavior. In fact I'm quite intrigued nowadays about what I don't understand about people, because I know that the theory of cognitive functions will be able to help me quite a bit with that, and I love understanding people... :D

So I will continue my study.
 
Wyst said:
Learning how I tick has made me more aware of my patterns. This has helped me in being more social and in making friends.

It's also got me searching for why calling is career-wise. Granted, I'm not searching for the 'top careers for INFJs' on monster.com but I know, generally, what most likely will not interest me, whereas before I started learning about my type, I wouldn't have had a clue.
Click to expand...
What did yo suspect that your calling was?
 
jlynnr said:
It's helped me understand the whys of a lot of things. Why are my brains made of space? - Fi and Ne, and no Se. How do I organize so well in the darkroom? - good Te. Come to think of it, the cognitive processes have been more helpful than the actual type.

It's really helped me get in touch with Fi more too - I was trying to use Te and Ti to please my SJ parents (because I use Se rarely, if at all...not my forte), while I am clearly a P - I used to test INTJ and INTP while I was at home because of it. I took the test again today and got a high F score for the first time.
Click to expand...

I can relate to that a lot! I also think I have been using Te or Ti (don't know the difference) and extremely developed my J to please my J-parents. First tested INFJ but I know almost with certainty that I'm INFP and this brough peace. It is like since I know MBTI I'm more who I really am, if that makes sense.

to answer the second question, Dragon, you are only 19 and still at school. you will find out that you have more options/possibilities to realise your projects when you get older. Although I don't feel like I have done much on my projects, I'm doing much more than I was doing when I was your age. I think basicely now is your time to find out who you are and what you want, to reflect. The time of action will come very soon. That is what I feel about it :w:
 
When I first found out I was INFJ, it was like the world suddenly did have a way to actually understand me. Then, I realized it was also a way for me to understand myself. So, I took the opportunity to do that, and also balance myself and widen my range of abilities (although I still have much more I wish to do)
 
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