Recognizing Thought Patterns

[Chopsifer]

Do you ever find yourself becoming aware of your own patterns of thought? If so, what type of patterns do you notice more often? And what part of your self do you think it is that is able to take a step back and look at these thoughts rushing by and make connections between them? (Hopefully it is more than a homunculus!)

This question goes for INFJs as well as any other type, but I would like for poster to try to relate their answers back to their type.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

1. Initial interest sparked by emotions, curiosity (an emotion), or from thought.

2. Recognition of interest. (Ne)

3. Classification of interest - ie. for interest's sake; something to deal with; a problem; etc. (J)

4. Realisation and reaction to classification. eg. If a problem is at hand, I get myself geared up for problem solving. (Fe if it involves other people)

5. Survey of circumstances, personal resources and other relevant factors. (Se)

6. DEEP in depth breaking down of all factors and classification of all factors. (either for problem solving for for simple understanding). (Ne)

7. Big-picture assesment of what can and cannot be done.

8. Decision.

9. Action.

 

[CoffeeShopDiva]

I spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about how I feel. When I feel bad, this makes a lot of it worse.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Yes - the my whole thought process is suffused with an awareness of how I feel.

 

[acd]

My thoughts are all feelings, usually.. and feelings--thoughts. Intermingled. I think I've done a bang-up job on learning how to be objective, though.. so I've gained a great deal of self-control even as far as usually being able to choose how and what I want to feel and to what extent and then whether to act upon it given circumstance or implications... and therefore not letting my emotions control all of my decisions and actions.

And yet--
Right now, I'm actually reading a book now called, More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics.. And it's really frustrating to me. (Great book, though. I recommend it for anyone NF who wants their way of thinking challenged.)

For example, he makes the claim that those opposed to the death penalty are for higher murder rates, which he does by taking lawyer William Blackstone to task for stating that, "It's better for ten guilty persons to escape than for one innocent to suffer." Basically, he asserts that based on crime statistics, this is the most harmful cost for society. My feelings want to say he's wrong, yet he makes a lot of sense. So it's challenging.

Sorry for the meandering answer, it's sort of the only way I can give an example of how my mind works.

 

[Julia]

My thoughts are most often based on finding patterns of any sort. When I discover relationships between concepts that re-emerge as a new set of patterns when viewed from another perspective, it makes me fundamentally happy. This is also true when I can distill complexity down to its core. I don't care what the nature of the information is, it can be a person's behavior, viewing fractals, understanding aesthetics, or mathematical patterns. When a system of ideas is solid enough that the relationships hold true and further enlighten when viewed from a new vantage points, it gives me this momentary sense of certainty which usually escapes me.

Most of the time I feel adrift in the sea of reality. It's like being on a make-shift raft drifting without any ability to control or determine its course. I have this constant sense of how small i am, that I am a tiny fragment that views only fragments. That is why when I comprehend a system that is whole, it is like seeing a ship pass by.

 

[Chopsifer]

I really have enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts (or would they be observations?) thus far! I hope more of you have some thoughts about this and would be willing to share, as it is something that really interests me, especially concerning other types and different modes of thought.

 

[bamf]

hmmm a metacognition question, thinking about thinking.

once i do some quality thinking I'll get back to you

 

[slant]

My thought process is broken. Usually my thoughts are centered from external conditions, and it continues to become more and more radically challenging to rope around things that are not happening right at the moment I am thinking about them. I can never put my finger on exactly how I feel or why, and as far as other thoughts go they are scattered and confusing. Usually thoughts will be centered around the present moment but at times they wander off to the future in which I have to stop myself from thinking about because there are so many improbable and 'when it happens' factors involved in the matter that daydreaming is just exhausting.

 

[rainrise]

consciously, my thoughts are focused on how the values and concepts i've come to hold pertain to the external world and from what i perceive externally either strengthens or weakens them by which i then adjust them until proven otherwise again. they are largely humanisitic, yet do not usually concern people on an individual basis unless that person/group is where my focus is specifically. perhaps it has to do with the collective, or rather collective unconscious.
it's interesting how i've realized more and more than when i am not consciously thinking, my perceptions are consistently in a state of guess in relation to an object, person, event, or other phenomena. if i were to put it in words, it'd be one or a combination of "what is it really in itself?", "how does this tie into the whole scheme and my experience?", and "it resembles this or that; i can do this or that with it" whereby then i come to see different things in it. all this is largely unconscious and makes me feel like im in a state of calm limbo. it helps to have some Se come in, do a 360 and say this is what it is. period.

 

[Chopsifer]

all this is largely unconscious and makes me feel like im in a state of calm limbo. it helps to have some Se come in, do a 360 and say this is what it is. period.

Yes, I understand completely. As much as I hate being criticized sometimes, it is helpful to have the part of me that is used to juggling around so many ideas and synthesizing them foiled by someone that can offer that grounded insight. Part of me, even though it seems kind of backwards to what was just typed, wishes to synthesize the patterns of my shadow typology so to allow myself to take things from so many different perspectives.

 

[Chopsifer]

My thought process is broken. Usually my thoughts are centered from external conditions, and it continues to become more and more radically challenging to rope around things that are not happening right at the moment I am thinking about them. I can never put my finger on exactly how I feel or why, and as far as other thoughts go they are scattered and confusing. Usually thoughts will be centered around the present moment but at times they wander off to the future in which I have to stop myself from thinking about because there are so many improbable and 'when it happens' factors involved in the matter that daydreaming is just exhausting.

I don't mean this in a demeaning way by any means, but I can say that at your age I felt the exact same type of inner conflict. One day I could be living in the present and in the other I could have future plans made for when I was retiring. While I do frequently have a lot of self-doubt due to over analytical tendencies in myself, I think that some of this inner conflict will get better.

I don't think that your thought process is broken, it is just developing and refining itself as you are trying to determine what matters most in life, you know? This process does get less chaotic, in my experience, but it is a matter of accepting it as what it is. A constant process.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

[Angelbabe2000]

Way Cool!

1. Initial interest sparked by emotions, curiosity (an emotion), or from thought.

2. Recognition of interest. (Ne)

3. Classification of interest - ie. for interest's sake; something to deal with; a problem; etc. (J)

4. Realisation and reaction to classification. eg. If a problem is at hand, I get myself geared up for problem solving. (Fe if it involves other people)

5. Survey of circumstances, personal resources and other relevant factors. (Se)

6. DEEP in depth breaking down of all factors and classification of all factors. (either for problem solving for for simple understanding). (Ne)

7. Big-picture assesment of what can and cannot be done.

8. Decision.

9. Action.

Excellent! I flove this!

 

[Poetic Justice]

See these two links for the definitive answer to your question. on these two pages is a description of NLP Meta Programmes. It's sort of like personality typing, only it's a far more definitive and useful way of looking at what thought processes you are using than MBTI is

http://www.renewal.ca/nlp17.htm

http://www.renewal.ca/nlp18.htm