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How Do You Process Emotions?

Dreamer

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Is there a difference in how the various personality types process their emotions. I'm not getting into the mud of who feels more than others. We're all human, we all feel emotions just the same. But how do you process that emotional data? To some, emotions can be this vague territory that is unknown or irrational, to others, it is the lifeblood through which all decisions are made and interpreted.

Not only am I interested in seeing how the various types perceive their emotions, and the emotions of others, but I wonder if the various function dynamics sift through emotions differently as well. Dig deep people, really deep. Analyze that thought process of yours. Let's talk about them feels :happy2:
 

fetus

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I am not sure I really process my emotions. I tend to understand them right away and not need to ask myself what/how I'm feeling. However, dealing with them is another beast. I have to get my feelings out. Journaling has helped me immensely, though it was really for a lonely time in my life which I am no longer in. Generally I just talk about them with others. I need people as sounding boards (I've heard that phrase used regarding extroverts). Talking about my feelings with others is very cathartic.

I'm a very F-oriented person. My emotions guide me and feed me, yet also trip me up and leave me hungry. My emotionality and creativity have an interdependent and mutualistic relationship, though, so I really wouldn't dream of getting rid of my feelings.

I'm not sure if this made much sense.
 

cascadeco

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I'm not sure what to say other than I pay attention to all my emotions, because they tell me something valuable.

I learn more about myself when I pay attention. What are more fleeting/temporary? What triggered them? How do my perceptions change and warp based on my current emotional state? How do I perceive others while in a certain emotional state?

With the ones that keep returning, I dig into them. How do I address the feeling/concern? What does it mean, the fact I'm having X emotion? That might take a long while.

It all happens internally, basically. Though I'll share deeper rooted emotions with friends - ie feelings that last / what I'm contemplating due to having them. I'll also share immediate thoughts, like with coworkers, if I'm just making a short one-off rant/commentary/frustration.
 

Dreamer

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I am not sure I really process my emotions. I tend to understand them right away and not need to ask myself what/how I'm feeling. However, dealing with them is another beast. I have to get my feelings out. Journaling has helped me immensely, though it was really for a lonely time in my life which I am no longer in. Generally I just talk about them with others. I need people as sounding boards (I've heard that phrase used regarding extroverts). Talking about my feelings with others is very cathartic.

I'm a very F-oriented person. My emotions guide me and feed me, yet also trip me up and leave me hungry. My emotionality and creativity have an interdependent and mutualistic relationship, though, so I really wouldn't dream of getting rid of my feelings.

I'm not sure if this made much sense.

LOVED this post feets, thanks for sharing! I totally get what you mean with using other people as a sounding board. I'm that way with thinking often times. One of the few obvious indicators to myself that I may not be a Ti user as I once thought myself to be. It really does help me to formulate my thoughts and run through plans and tasks when I say them aloud. It can even just be to myself. Seeing them outside of myself, on paper, wherever, just gives a much better context to it all. Otherwise, my logic and thoughts get tangled in the weeds that is my incessant mind clutter. Is this similar to your emotions? Seeing them out in the world, through poetry, journaling, speaking with friends, are you doing a similar thing as I mentioned I do with my thoughts?
 

Evo

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I don't process them lol.

At least not until they build up enough that I can't ignore them anymore. Then usually people point them out. And that really gets to me, when someone else tells me how I'm feeling...

*Cues spiral*
 

Dreamer

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I'm not sure what to say other than I pay attention to all my emotions, because they tell me something valuable.

I learn more about myself when I pay attention. What are more fleeting/temporary? What triggered them? How do my perceptions change and warp based on my current emotional state? How do I perceive others while in a certain emotional state?

With the ones that keep returning, I dig into them. How do I address the feeling/concern? What does it mean, the fact I'm having X emotion? That might take a long while.

It all happens internally, basically. Though I'll share deeper rooted emotions with friends - ie feelings that last / what I'm contemplating due to having them. I'll also share immediate thoughts, like with coworkers, if I'm just making a short one-off rant/commentary/frustration.

Interesting! So are you consciously thinking about what makes you feel this or that? And analyzing your emotions at all times? I tend to make note of it, and I do analyze my emotions when I give myself the time to reflect on them, but then I move on to the next activity fairly quickly. I feel you go a step or two beyond what I do. Awesome :)
 

cascadeco

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Interesting! So are you consciously thinking about what makes you feel this or that? And analyzing your emotions at all times? I tend to make note of it, and I do analyze my emotions when I give myself the time to reflect on them, but then I move on to the next activity fairly quickly. I feel you go a step or two beyond what I do. Awesome :)

Hmm, I think so? Like, I know if I've been in the customer service frontlines at work for too long, or I am low on sleep/not feeling well, I get irritable and inwardly judgmental towards people. vs If I've had more of a balance, not in the frontlines the entire time, or am fully rested/in a good mood, I'll be less judgmental and easygoing. That sort of thing -just a straightforward example. It's something I've mostly noticed in recent years. I'm not sure I was able to identify as much when I was younger.

And yes, generally I'm always just noticing how I'm feeling.
 

Smilephantomhive

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Fuck, now that I think about it I'm not so sure.

I guess I'll just think about what happened, and the feelings just do what they want. I think about the event first, and then maybe analyze the emotions if they are bugging me. I've also realized that I do physical things when experiencing some emotions. When I'm excited I do the walk out of the room thing I posted in the quirks thread, and when I'm angry I'll punch a pillow, stuff like that.
 

Hawthorne

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Positive emotions are straightforward. A rush of energy. Sensations of focus and capability. Pride and Flow.

Negative emotions. I am almost immediately aware when I'm discontent or something is bothering me. I usually have to take time and process the specifics. Compartmentalization comes easy. "I can't afford/don't feel like processing this right now. I'll do it later." Sometimes I forget.

Often times I will ask myself if my reaction is fair. Both to others and myself.
 

Yama

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I need to process out loud. Bounce off of someone. And I have to be comfortable, completely at ease, around them. I process by venting, and someone listening, maybe giving me feedback. I find that usually, other people are good at pointing out things that I've missed or even things I already know but don't want to address, thus forcing me to address them. I guess that's where the extroverted part of my extroverted feeling went?

I find that once I've worked it out and processed through it in this way, it's much easier to let go of them. If I don't have anyone to talk to--it's bottled. It builds. I dwell on it. Spiral endlessly. Sorry to those of you who always end up listening to me vent, but, well, I'm selfish and I need it! :p
 

ceecee

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I cannot process emotion out loud to anyone. At least not right away. I have to go through it myself and gain a clear understanding of them. Once that happens, I can talk about it. If it's overwhelming it gets compartmentalized until I have time and energy to deal with them. Unless it's anger - then it's probably coming out but even that can be compartmentalized.
 

RobinSkye

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I think I try to avoid many emotional instances involving others, and get a large portion of my emotional activity from media - music, film, etc. I find that having to express Fe all the time around people I don't know well is extremely draining/not worthwhile, and I can never fully relax even just around one or two people who I am very close with. I think I'm just fine when people aren't too expressive beyond it being people I'm close with being happy on a general level. If they're all people I know, then I understand how to interact with them, but in a big party of mere acquaintances who are all shouting and being gregarious, it's overload time. I think there's only three instances in which I become quite overwhelmingly emotional
-finding extreme beauty/sadness/etc. in a piece of music, moment of cinema, etc. (this usually involves a moment of realization, something enlightening because it is so true or sad, or profound)
-when people cause some sense of helplessness about the human race and the way the world is. Basically, if people or a person do something so horrid that I get stuck in a rut, typically this will be someone in my immediate situation who I view as being extremely irrational, ignorant, thoughtless, etc. but I drop this very quickly after a quick inferior outburst. Unless it involves an immediate family member (which it has multiple times before), then I probably don't end up associating with the person too much afterwards. For one instance I can think of, I had a college friend who had drank too much and was getting offended somehow by my comments, started acting as though she was tough and going to put me in my place or something. She thought it somehow alright if she approached me(whilst in a small group of people) and start basically wrestling me and pulling at my hair and such, and I was completely taken over in a raging impulse, a fight or flight if you will, and flipped her over on the ground. Apprently in the end it was somehow perceived as some being my fault, even though I had no antagonistic intentions, overpowering someone else was seen as negative, whilst it was my self defense.
-When there is some type of expression that is expected to be showed. This goes beyond being generally welcoming in a social situation. I think normally if I'm genuinely enjoying myself I likely do show a smile, and people have pointed out that I come off as a generally happy person, which I associate to Fe and Ne in tandem. I get excited by new ideas and prospects all the time, I guess, even when it required that I share them with others haha. However, there have been cases such as where family members have died that there are certain expected stronger emotional responses, and a lot of times this involved (when I was much younger) forcing myself into grief and trying to be sad about it when it probably wouldn't normally phase me, or nowadays crying or following other such strong emotions of a close family member around me. It's as though I cry because they are crying, following a lead, and not because of the actual event which occurred, but because seeing their strong response is so different or profound to my mind. Just like if I were in a film or such, I am able to tap into emotions through others, by analyzing what others' situations are, and then understanding what makes it profound. I cry not because I'm sad or in despair but because I find some beauty in what it represents. (???)
 

Ghost

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I repress them until I get a bleeding ulcer and die.
 

fetus

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Otherwise, my logic and thoughts get tangled in the weeds that is my incessant mind clutter. Is this similar to your emotions? Seeing them out in the world, through poetry, journaling, speaking with friends, are you doing a similar thing as I mentioned I do with my thoughts?

Uncanny. I have described it to others almost exactly this way (the bolded). The tangling and the mind clutter.

Yes, my brain just gets so thick with thought and emotion. It helps to just pour it all out, escape it, and breathe.
 

Smilephantomhive

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I don't process them lol.

At least not until they build up enough that I can't ignore them anymore. Then usually people point them out. And that really gets to me, when someone else tells me how I'm feeling...

*Cues spiral*

Oh yeah I hate when people tell me how I'm feeling even when they are right.
 

Evo

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Oh yeah I hate when people tell me how I'm feeling even when they are right.

Yea, I reject whatever they say about it. Even when they're right lol. This is basically what I mean when i say I'm "low balling" someone.

Now, he just tells me I probably need a nap.

Ah, that sounds like when my friends tell me to have a snickers.
 

Verona

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I usually need time alone to mull over what I am feeling and why. When the emotions are raw I usually just cry by myself for awhile. Any strong emotion makes me cry so even when I am angry this usually happens. Once I have figured them out on my own then I like to talk about them with people I am close to.
 
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I feel them in my brain like sine waves that are oscillating in harmony/discord and I alternate their patterns to speed them up/slow them down for different tasks. The "shape" of one emotion can be very different from another.
 

chado

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well i dont know if this is because im infp but i get realy intense emotions,(because of fi)basically if its a good emotion i just enjoy the ride of it,i often can become drunk of emotion,if its a bad emotion,id do something to lift up my mod and feel better,with me if im happy with friends i get realy urphoric and drunk off happyness,if im angry i tend to become drunk with anger(maby i have a mentle condiciton) but what ever emotion im feeling its realy intense,but basically i understand my emotions very well.
 
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