When I am with people I feel, i know what they feel, we all feel and flow through each other.
When I am alone its not so easy... I feel but i cant figure out what, or how or why.
Put someone emotional in front of me and I will map out what and why they feel the way they do. And yet I cannot do the same for myself.
I feel like an emotional vampire.
How do you develop Fi? What are some exercises?
Hi, Billy--
I like Uumlau's lake metaphor. I would like to add to it, if I may. Take it for what you will.
I think when we start out as Fe aux's, we are a depression in the ground with little water in us. Rivulets develop first, then streams, and finally rivers as love and interest in people expands, which is Fe. As we do this, our lake of Fi fills up, and when we take a moment to consider it, we realize that we have developed some very real ideals and values about things that we didn't start off with.
I believe it is what we discover through our experiences with Fe, predominantly (to use typology lingo, not saying we just live in some sort of Ni/Fe box, of course), that turns into Fi; what we feel strongly about. I noticed I started having all these Fi cementations in my 20's and 30
s. They resulted from the experiences I had dealing with people, my friends, and family, and acquaintances, etc. (Fe) If I discovered through Fe that my loved ones responded well to "x" behavior or treatment, over time I internalized "x" behavior or treatment, and attached deep meaning to it, as good or bad; how I felt about "x".
In the beginning, (18-25) as you describe, I did not necessarily have any opinion about "x" behavior. My Fe endeavors and intentions led me to understand my core values.
I think Fi doms have a lifetime of developing their core values, and judging behavior with them. But, for us, the fluid nature of Fe, combined with our Ni, gives us our core values, and this occurs over time.
I wouldn't worry about 'developing' anything in MBTI terms. What if MBTI is wrong, totally wrong? *shudder*
We really have very little understanding of how functions work in us and others. Just follow your intuition, and live your life as fully as possible, and when you are older, you will look back and be able to see how much you have grown.