The INFJ's Unusually Rich Inner Life

[ensign_m]

Many of the INFJ type summaries I've read usually reference the INFJ's typically rich inner life. If your MBT is INFJ, what's your earliest recollection of having thoughts that weren't quite ordinary? I only ask because I remember thinking, at seven years old, that perhaps I was really the only person who actually existed and that everyone and everything else around me was a fiction in my head, manfactured as the construct for me to live in. Is that weird or do you guys have similar recollections as well? If so, post your earliest wierd/existential/extraordinary musings here! At least then I'll know I'm not (that) strange... :?

 

[gokartride]

Well, I'd love to be of more help, but no, I was a pretty normal little kid. I did have a good imagination, though, I will say that! I doubt that what you're describing is unusual...kids do have a very fanciful way about them. My 22 y/o daughter works a program w/ lots of little kids...5 y/o or so. They come up with the funniest things!!!! My little friend Emma (also 5) comes with her parents and 2 y/o triplet sibs to the restaurant I eat at every Saturday night...she's usually has some fairy princess garb goin' on. Doesn't phase her one bit that she's probably the only fairy princess around for miles.

 

[sumone]

I was a happy go lucky kid, that's how I appeared to people anyway but there were people who got 'spooked' by the things I might say now and then. I might suddenly discover something about someone, something very deep and because I was very young I'd either blurt it out or it would show on my face and body language even if I couldn't put it into words. It got me into a ton of trouble time and time again. I honestly just pretty much faked being a kid because inside I always felt older. Becoming friends with and understanding my intuition is an ongoing thing with me.
If my intuition and I could become one there'd be no stopping us!

 

[Entyqua]

I remember as a kid always thinking that somehow i was very special and there was some great deed i was put here to do and that i would be revered as a great hero for something but could never quite grasp that something....As a teen I was in theatre and felt like i was the most fantastical actress the world had ever known. I remember thinking alot as a child and a teen that I was not like everyone else some how i was either magical (child) or just better as a teen but no one could see it but me!

I think i still have some of those ideas of grandeur in my head every time i see a play or work of art I think back to how marvelous i was then. and Imagine how marvelous i could be....so in so many words Yes.

 

[Motor Jax]

I remember as a kid always thinking that somehow i was very special and there was some great deed i was put here to do and that i would be revered as a great hero for something but could never quite grasp that something....As a teen I was in theatre and felt like i was the most fantastical actress the world had ever known. I remember thinking alot as a child and a teen that I was not like everyone else some how i was either magical (child) or just better as a teen but no one could see it but me!

I think i still have some of those ideas of grandeur in my head every time i see a play or work of art I think back to how marvelous i was then. and Imagine how marvelous i could be....so in so many words Yes.

omg... i can relate exactly... i still have those illusions of grandeur and someday, i will become that great someone i had always imagined

 

[Entyqua]

I remember as a kid always thinking that somehow i was very special and there was some great deed i was put here to do and that i would be revered as a great hero for something but could never quite grasp that something....As a teen I was in theatre and felt like i was the most fantastical actress the world had ever known. I remember thinking alot as a child and a teen that I was not like everyone else some how i was either magical (child) or just better as a teen but no one could see it but me!

I think i still have some of those ideas of grandeur in my head every time i see a play or work of art I think back to how marvelous i was then. and Imagine how marvelous i could be....so in so many words Yes.

omg... i can relate exactly... i still have those illusions of grandeur and someday, i will become that great someone i had always imagined

WHEW I am not totally alone on that! I still have them too! and in my head the cheezy super hero stance is SO COOL! ROFLMAO!!

 

[ensign_m]

I remember as a kid always thinking that somehow i was very special and there was some great deed i was put here to do and that i would be revered as a great hero for something but could never quite grasp that something....As a teen I was in theatre and felt like i was the most fantastical actress the world had ever known. I remember thinking alot as a child and a teen that I was not like everyone else some how i was either magical (child) or just better as a teen but no one could see it but me!

I think i still have some of those ideas of grandeur in my head every time i see a play or work of art I think back to how marvelous i was then. and Imagine how marvelous i could be....so in so many words Yes.

omg... i can relate exactly... i still have those illusions of grandeur and someday, i will become that great someone i had always imagined

+1...except for me they're not illusions...hehe

 

[ensign_m]

...If so, post your earliest wierd/existential/extraordinary musings here! At least then I'll know I'm not (that) strange... :?

OMG...having a perfectionist moment...can't believe I spelled "weird' incorrectly!

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled thread, LOL!

 

[gokartride]

i still have those illusions of grandeur and someday, i will become that great someone i had always imagined

I'm afraid the years have slipped away from me on this one. I did have some amazing stuff happen in my life, but in the end I have to be content that the fruits of this probably won't make the headlines or be a featured chapter in the annals of recent decades. It suffices, I suppose, to know in my heart that I gave it my best and have little to prove to myself. Having an interesting life does carry some odd consequences.....my body is 53, but I swear my mind is 180 (in a good way).

 

[gloomy-optimist]

Man, I can relate to so much that has been said here...I always felt different than most people my age in that way. More insightful, perhaps? But I've always had those thoughts of grandeur; I never remember ever thinking I could be comfortable living a "normal" life with a "normal" job...it feels too redundant and too wasteful. And, while I haven't had such odd thoughts at a terribly young age, since I was about 12 I've been pretty much questioning and theorizing about the world and universe and how perception of individuals effect all of that...
I mean, when you think about it, there is technically no reality. The world is viewed differently by each person; no one sees exactly the same thing, ever, nor do they think exactly the same details. So, basically, the world as a whole is different to each individual, and what we don't know is there, actually isn't. I mean, no one even knew about the Americas until they were discovered by European explorers, so for a long time they may have not even existed (from a European point of view; it would be the opposite for Native Americans). Thus, reality actually isn't a concrete concept at all.
And that's pretty much the way it works for every topic in my head.

 

[ensign_m]

Thus, reality actually isn't a concrete concept at all.

Oooooh....that's deep, man...

 

[gokartride]

I can accept reality....but from what I can tell it's big enough to encompass all our diversity and much more. Usually my assumptions about reality are the limiting factor.

 

[Lurker]

I don't think it's an INFJ trait to have a rich inner life, I think it's and introverted thing

The thoughts that go on in my head... sheesh *raises eyebrow and nods*

 

[ensign_m]

I don't think it's an INFJ trait to have a rich inner life, I think it's and introverted thing

The thoughts that go on in my head... sheesh *raises eyebrow and nods*

Okay, Lurker. I suppose you can have a rich inner life, too...

 

[Entyqua]

Very deep thinking going on in here! I too often feel that reality is just a myth the bandanna that's covering our eyes so were blinded to our full potential! And the Ideas of working Normal jobs and having a NORMAL like seems VERY wasteful to me also! This is why I cant take other peoples (close to me) advice because how they perceive reality is completely different from me. Everyone tells me to just stick it out at my dead end job that i HATE its for the greater good of the family they say....UGH Its so mundane and retarded! (No offense meant) For me every day the quote "The definition of insanity is Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results" POURS through my brain ALL day long! So all I want to do is STOP and do something completely different! Because in my head I KNOW that i should be doing something worth while and meaningful.....because I am some sort of gift to humanity! (in my head)

 

[sumone]

Oh if I could think of something creative and lucrative I could do from my own home I'd be a happy, happy camper!

 

[Entyqua]

Oh if I could think of something creative and lucrative I could do from my own home I'd be a happy, happy camper!

Same thing for me! IN a HEARTBEAT!!

 

[sumone]

I wonder if that's why I'm drawn to watching the Matrix movies over and over. I often feel like life is some sort of dream.

 

[sriv]

I often feel like life is some sort of dream.

Maybe the concept of "perception is not reality" is easiest for INFJs to understand.
I definitely have trouble with it and trust my observations (misguided or not) too much.

 

[gokartride]

For me this has been more focused on "illusion is not reality." It utterly amazes me how much illusion and assumption serve as the basis for understanding actual reality....I've almost come to accept "nothing is what is seems at first glance" as a personal maxim. Reality is out there...but it's not what I might have thought initially.

Raising kids is probably as close as I'll ever get to doing something heroic....I suppose it is on some level, depending on how you look at it. I've also been veryfortunate to have been in careers that were connected to much larger issues, so it was a good place to vent my passions for saving.....well...something.

As far as a rich inner life, as a kid I was just plain imaginative...any real ability to make more substantial connections came when I was in my late teens. It's funny how some of those early intuitions have played out amost 40 years later. Yes, those first thoughts were valid, but again...."nothing was what it seemed at first glance."