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[Jungian Cognitive Functions] INFJs Getting Lost in the "Black Hole" of Time and Space

CuriousFeeling

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Don't know how many of you go through this, but it seems like whenever I get dead set focused on a task that I am doing, I almost lose sense of what is going on around me, it's almost like I get lost on autopilot whenever I am doing a task, or listening to a lecture and my brain goes off millions of miles away from the present moment. It's one of those moments where for a minute you can go off far away and practically not hear what is going on around you until a key word is mentioned in a lecture and then poof, you're back in the present moment. This also happens at home where I can become literally engrossed in an activity (such as reading or playing music), and then 2 hours fly by, and it feels like just a couple minutes.

I do find that in day to day stuff, even when I try to focus on the present moment, I end up getting sucked into my mind and end up focusing on my inner thoughts, this endless babble in my brain that goes on and on and on... one stream of thought leads to another, then goes to another, and then it branches outward to all the different angles of a problem or concept I am thinking of. It feels like a gravitational pull of a black hole, pulling me into my head and aspects of the present moment fade. Awareness of my body and sensory information in physical constructs of time and space end up becoming lost because I am so far inside my head.

INFJs on here, do you experience similar things like this? And if so, how does it feel for you, and what amusing stories do you have regarding getting lost in an Ni-Ti loop?
 

Lily flower

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Yes, I do this, too. I have actually had to set an alarm to remind me to pick my children up from preschool because I would forget the time.
 

lane777

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Yeah, there are times I'll be watching a program with my brother and when something interesting comes up he'll ask if I heard it... usually followed by, "Where were you that time?" It's a frequent thing. Was a HUGE problem in high school and life in general and I never want it to go away.
 

amerellis

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No, this doesn't really happen to me . . . I mean I'll zone out and get lost in my thoughts some times if that's what you mean but you appear to be describing something deeper. Maybe I'm just too extraverted?
 

redacted

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I definitely hyperfocus a lot, but I'm extremely focused on expectations of me (I probably developed this as a mechanism to counteract my tendency to lose track of reality), so I always know what time it is and pretty much never forget my commitments. I don't notice shit for sensory information though -- it's the tradeoff for being time sensitive and analyzing the shit out of everything that crosses my mind.
 

Fidelia

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My mum used to worry when I was a preschooler that she had forgotten me somewhere along the stops of dropping my dad and siblings off at work at school because I was so quiet in the back seat. Usually I would come up with some complete non sequitur based on my wandering train of thought, which I forgot to catch people up on.

Sometimes I've completely forgotten about engagements, but usually if it is something important I am okay. I don't think I get that totally absorbed unless sometimes when I am talking with people.
 
N

NPcomplete

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When I ask my [INFJ] sister what she's done during the day, she sometimes bashfully replies that I should "never underestimate [her] power to get lost in the black hole that is [her] mind."

:D
 

King sns

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Hmm.. wow. Sounds interesting. I usually need to refocus on the present moment frequently for points of reference. (Points of reference like, where am I? What am I doing today? What is going on in my immediate present and future? Where's my cell phone? and such. :laugh:) And that's what leads me off into daydream. How do you get lost in thought without these points? I guess most of it comes from inside somehow.
 

Fidelia

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I think I use some concrete jumping off points - an article I read, a picture editing program I'm just learning how to use, the problems or discussions posed on here - those kinds of things sometimes result in me being surprised that the day has gone by and I've only got a fraction done of what I had originally intended to.
 

Crescent Fresh

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Hmm.. wow. Sounds interesting. I usually need to refocus on the present moment frequently for points of reference. (Points of reference like, where am I? What am I doing today? What is going on in my immediate present and future? Where's my cell phone? and such. :laugh:) And that's what leads me off into daydream. How do you get lost in thought without these points? I guess most of it comes from inside somehow.

I think both INFJ and ENFP can get lost in their mind quite easily but there's a significant difference in losing themselves via mind-trip.

INFJ tends to get lost within themselves about their ideology and it can jump from a self-reflecting moments of a given past action to dwelling upon the ambigious, thought-provoking issues such as the meaning of life, without actually "planning" on taking these trips.

Whereas ENFP tends to focus more daily errands and duties, or a mental checklist when they wonder their minds around out of the blue. Though they do think deep about all of their inner-values and ideologies as well and the difference is that they planned and wanted to do this whenever they recharge for introspection.

My theory is that it has to do with our inferior functions. INFJ has an inferior Se so they tend to detach from the reality from these unplanned mind trips no matter how hard they tried to microfocus on planning their daily schedule and activities; whereas ENFP's inferior Si has affected them to ignore their biological needs by unintentionally skipping means or being overtly preoccupied with social activities that they have lost their sense of time.
 

King sns

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I think both INFJ and ENFP can get lost in their mind quite easily but there's a significant difference in losing themselves via mind-trip.

INFJ tends to get lost within themselves about their ideology and it can jump from a self-reflecting moments of a given past action to dwelling upon the ambigious, thought-provoking issues such as the meaning of life, without actually "planning" on taking these trips.

Whereas ENFP tends to focus more daily errands and duties, or a mental checklist when they wonder their minds around out of the blue. Though they do think deep about all of their inner-values and ideologies as well and the difference is that they planned and wanted to do this whenever they recharge for introspection.

My theory is that it has to do with our inferior functions. INFJ has an inferior Se so they tend to detach from the reality from these unplanned mind trips no matter how hard they tried to microfocus on planning their daily schedule and activities; whereas ENFP's inferior Si has affected them to ignore their biological needs by unintentionally skipping means or being overtly preoccupied with social activities that they have lost their sense of time.

:yes:
This all makes sense. It fascinates me that someone can depresent-ify themselves all together. Sounds like it would make life kind of hard.
 

Crescent Fresh

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:yes:
This all makes sense. It fascinates me that someone can depresent-ify themselves all together. Sounds like it would make life kind of hard.

Yes, perhaps that's why most description about INFJ as complex individuals has to do with the endless Ni-Ti loops. The problem is whenever people complain to me that I tend to "think things too much," it's not something I can control with as it's just part of how we functions every now and then. :(
 

King sns

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Yes, perhaps that's why most description about INFJ as complex individuals has to do with the endless Ni-Ti loops. The problem is whenever people complain to me that I tend to "think things too much," it's not something I can control with as it's just part of how we functions every now and then. :(

Well, yeah. That makes sense, too. It's like, you can't help it, but- at the same time, it just seems like it would be insanely hard to do much in life when you are like that. Referencing something else deep inside the brain all the time.
 

MTINFJ

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I have spaced out moments all the time and have for as long as I can remember. Over the years I've developed little tricks and games I play with myself to keep me on track during the course of the day and year. For example, my smart phone calendar has become very important to me because I pack it with all sorts of alarms and reminders to keep me on track during the course of a day, week, month, and year. With some effort I've gotten much better than I used to be. I have rehashed complex arguments in my mind while walking on the sidewalk or riding the subway and I've had to learn to remind myself to snap out of it and save those thoughts for a more appropriate time. I have found that this zoning out problem is actually useful when doing practical work that involves thinking through a variety of options or anticipating objections to new ideas or proposals. I have also found that it helps to exercise it with a real life interlocutor from time to time, and again practical work sometimes provides the opportunity for this.
 

ameeker

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These personality forums are causing me to lose track of time.
 

ameeker

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So those movies where you can always hear the thoughts inside other's heads was probably created by an INFJ?
 
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