[INFJ] INFJ, inner life a little too rich?

[violaine]

^People... it's the bulk-buy musical undies I gifted two Xmas ago. ('High School Musical' song cycle is pretty epic though, I understand the confusion).

 

[Not_Me]

I read the posts with interest. I hear about the NF inner fantasy world and always wondered what goes on in your minds. I have my inner world, but it's related to analysis and evaluating possible scenarios. Is the NF version more about experiencing the "trip" rather than analysis?

 

[A Schnitzel]

I read the posts with interest. I hear about the NF inner fantasy world and always wondered what goes on in your minds. I have my inner world, but it's related to analysis and evaluating possible scenarios. Is the NF version more about experiencing the "trip" rather than analysis?

I bet you never suspected the key to their powers involved musical undies.

 

[Domino]

I totally have theme music.

What's yours?

Mine would be something by David Bowie. Perhaps the theme from "Cool World". *happy otter paw claps* Yay!

That kinda makes me a sad panda hearing that. I have had that happen with Narnia (the books anyway) as well. It was...a little too "perfect" or "easy" perhaps.

And yes. Theme music that you could hear outside your headphones/head would be awesome! Especially if it was generated by your movements/thoughts and sychronised with daily life. *is filled with glee at the thought*

I've also had my mother say similar things to me. Except she's just a little bit more likely to believe in it just for a moment or two. But that is one of her chief complaints about me--being too much "in my head".

*pats the sad panda*

My mom is an ESTJ, and while she does nothing to discourage my flights of fancy or my creative side, she doesn't "get" the "lost in your head" feeling. She enjoys the fantastical stuff, but as long as order and sense are restored afterward.

I think my fantasy element has been further promoted by all the truly odd "Big Fish" things that happen to or around me. I remember one time, not long ago, I was laying on my bed and I heard this weird noise. I walked into my sister's room and said, "You hear that?" She said yes. It was a puzzling noise.

"Sounds like a hot air balloon?" I ventured.

I went downstairs, kept hearing the noise. Finally I turned around and there was this huge hot air balloon rising up from behind my neighbor's house (we're not rural, so I don't know how they managed it) with a wildly waving Santa Claus at the helm.

I just sort of stood there staring. "Yeah. That would happen..."

But, but, I thought I was the only one...

Whenever a bell rings, a Schnitzel gets buffalo wings.

I read the posts with interest. I hear about the NF inner fantasy world and always wondered what goes on in your minds. I have my inner world, but it's related to analysis and evaluating possible scenarios. Is the NF version more about experiencing the "trip" rather than analysis?

It's all about the trip for me. I do run to a conclusion, but it's the vast amounts of detail in between that I really live for.

I bet you never suspected the key to their powers involved musical undies.

SHHHH! *soft strains of 'Stairway to Heaven' coming from my jeans*

 

[Sniffles]

Yes I have an extremely rich inner life. So rich and complex, I can't even begin to explain it.

 

[grasshoppersings]

check this out. this is where I am if you cant find me

My inner world is like a rain forest jungle with hundreds of thriving plants and trees and every kind of animal, loving on each other, rubbing up against each other, happy to be there and me walking around in the middle of it finding undiscovered creatures of which I plan on showing the world, someday. All of our best medicines come from the rain forest jungle. I do believe it is the INFJ's who, given the right source of motivation and power (Holy Spirit inspired, of course) will discover the newest breakthroughs that bring relief and remission to many of our currently uncurable diseases, mental illnesses.

 

[surgery]

My inner world is actually kind of dead and repetitive a lot of the time.

I can relate to this. My imagination is pretty vivid, but once I've adopted a personal philosophy, I tend to obsess over that and form inner world around it to the point where I can focus my thoughts on the same things every day. Apart from that, I can somewhat relate to some of the cartoonish scenarios described here. For example, a teacher caught me laughing to myself during one of his lectures because I was imagining a girl's eyes bulging out of her head on long coils. While I do daydream frequently, it's not usually in that manner. Usually, my inner world is focused on my self-image. All of my thoughts displayed for an imaginary audience.

 

[cascadeco]

I read the posts with interest. I hear about the NF inner fantasy world and always wondered what goes on in your minds. I have my inner world, but it's related to analysis and evaluating possible scenarios. Is the NF version more about experiencing the "trip" rather than analysis?

I...actually relate more to what you write about analysis and evaluating possible scenarios than I do to some of the really creative imaginations that others have posted here.

I'm either analyzing myself, situations, or people, am contemplating life and philosophy and stuff like that, am in a sort of zen-like state where I just have random impressions and quasi-thoughts floating through my head and am not thinking of anything particular at all, or am a ball of emotion, and am just reveling in the emotions I'm feeling (or cringing at the emotions I'm feeling ;-).

I definitely do the make-believe conversation thing in my head, and I love escaping into fantasy worlds when I read and while watching movies, and can be wistful that they don't actually exist, but....yeah. I don't think I'm nearly as imaginative as many here! I wouldn't say my internal world is rich with excitement. Darn. Also to echo Athenian a bit, I can actually get sick to death of my internal world at times - I think it's due to my analyzing tendencies, which can be wearisome.

 

[the state i am in]

one of the infj type descriptions is the Author, right? i think sometimes we can struggle to let life happen bc we're already strangling it with writing (imagination/fantasy). a la amelie...

as far as when around other people, i grew up playing soccer and thinking three or four passes ahead of the play. as the play unfolds, i always chuckle bc i see so many perfectly absurd possibilities just begging me for a grin. it's just so easy, people at work think i'm crazy, but who can argue with a chuckle?

nonetheless, constant internal monologue gets to be a bit much sometimes.

 

[Lexicon]

I recently spoke with a fellow INFJ who could relate very well to my constant imagination. I know most INFJ's have an abundance of creative thought, but I wonder what this actually looks like. I find myself constantly "daydreaming", or creating wildly fictacious stories whenever my mind wanders. It's not something I consciously decide to do. Sometimes while in the company of others I will imagine the conversation going a completely different direction. I also tend to create conversations with people I know. I imagine exactly what would be said, felt, thought...and I play it over in my mind, adding and subtracting certain scenes. I have been known to confuse actual conversations with made-up ones, and have on occasion felt I had a much deeper relationship with someone than what actually was.
I've noticed that some of the people I know in real life are actually much more fascinating in my imagination. I build people up in my mind, and am often disapointed when I spend real time with them. Mostly I enjoy my strong ideality and ability to fabricate fantasy so easily, but I can also see how easy it might be to get too wrapped up in my own world and shut others out. Is this something other INFJ's struggle with? Or any other type? Staying grounded. Sometimes I think that my make-believe life is much more appealing than real life, but I know that in order to make real life interesting I need to spend more time in it.

Definitely trademark of the INFJ.
I personally love that quality within myself.

ps- Amelie is one of my favorites.

 

[APenguin]

I have little characters in my head for all my friends. Don't get me wrong, they're very much based off of them and aren't really insanely based on fantasy. It's just, I like to fill in the.. holes with things I want. So sometimes my imaginary friends do have much more interesting personalities... so conversation can sometimes be more interesting.


and they're usually just better listeners....



But I can still stay grounded and can tell when I'm being a bit outrageous or when I can expect to be going in the complete wrong direction in my head.

It's still fun

 

[ReadingRainbows]

Oooh yes! Theme music is a necessity of life. At least mine.


In relation to the idea of magic and such existing, there is SO much that I wish were real or true, or that I'd come across just to make life as exciting as it could be, as it is in my own mind. Time-travel has always been in my interests, so currently I'm fabricating day-dreams of coming across The Doctor and hitching a ride with him on the TARDIS so we could go just anywhere. [Honestly. Just yesterday, at work, I saw a customer who resembled David Tennant's Doctor enough for me to think, for a split-second, "Oh my gosh, YES!" only to be sorely disappointed ].

Magic, time-travel, gateways into other worlds or dimensions such as the Wardrobe into Narnia, and books or films or TV shows which revolve around such things only do to feed my obsession and need for this kind of thing. Gives me new material, too, for the stories I can write in my head.

My theme music is Return to Innocense by Enigma, Gravity of Love by enigma, and Deliver me sung by Sarah Brightman in a loop

 

[eclare]

I read the posts with interest. I hear about the NF inner fantasy world and always wondered what goes on in your minds. I have my inner world, but it's related to analysis and evaluating possible scenarios. Is the NF version more about experiencing the "trip" rather than analysis?

My J is quite strong, so I can relate to your experience. It's funny though, because I do have a very active dreamworld (many, actually), but they are each bound by their own rules. So like, if my characters start doing something that may fit the emotional theme of the "story" but defies the rules or norms that have been established I get frustrated and have to start all over from the beginning.

 

[maerzhase]

If I have time to spare I really love to daydream. I tend to inform myself about every topic I am just interested in. That is why google to me is such a great invention. I can’t relate to people saying they get easily bored. If task are waiting to be done I need to put them down on a paper or else I will waste my time just diving into my own thoughts and nothing will get done. This is why I actually write down every day what I want to achive by the end of the day. As a child I used to create scenes in my head about things I wanted to say to people and then never dared to say to them. It drove me nuts that I could not tell my friends the thoughts that were all in my head.

 

[eclare]

I tend to inform myself about every topic I am just interested in. That is why google to me is such a great invention.

Oh Lord, yes. I have to carry my blackberry around with me everywhere just in case I suddenly wonder about something and have to look it up immediately. (To be fair, I have to carry my blackberry around anyway for work but I think I use it more often for looking stuff up on wikipedia.) What did people do before the internets?

 

[Kyrielle]

Oh Lord, yes. I have to carry my blackberry around with me everywhere just in case I suddenly wonder about something and have to look it up immediately. (To be fair, I have to carry my blackberry around anyway for work but I think I use it more often for looking stuff up on wikipedia.) What did people do before the internets?

If they were like me, they had a set of outdated encyclopedias and would go look up what they were wondering and ultimately get sidetracked looking up something else only to forget what they were originally looking for in the first place! Aside from that, I kept it to myself as a mystery.

 

[antireconciler]

I tend to inform myself about every topic I am just interested in. That is why google to me is such a great invention.

It's kind of compulsive to me. I have some thought and there I am on google. I'll also compulsively work out new thoughts, and review them, looking for new connections ... I don't mind this, but ... I don't like my mind feeling hurried, and when it is, I grow suspicious of my thoughts and begin thinking that they are simply distractions, because I associate hurried thoughts with anxiety, and I actively wish to reduce my anxiety, and to take my thoughts more slowly.

You know? I just don't like the idea of NOT thinking about WHY I am doing something. I want everything to be conscious and for a purpose, not just automatic.

I can relate to this. My imagination is pretty vivid, but once I've adopted a personal philosophy, I tend to obsess over that and form inner world around it to the point where I can focus my thoughts on the same things every day. Apart from that, I can somewhat relate to some of the cartoonish scenarios described here. For example, a teacher caught me laughing to myself during one of his lectures because I was imagining a girl's eyes bulging out of her head on long coils. While I do daydream frequently, it's not usually in that manner.

I'm like you and Athenian on this this topic. Sometimes my thoughts can take interesting twists, but I think this is a lot less frequent than many daydreamers let on. It's no more novel than any dream at night ... which despite small changes and novelties are otherwise horribly horribly horribly repetitive. It's like the OPPOSITE of creative.

Usually, my inner world is focused on my self-image. All of my thoughts displayed for an imaginary audience.

Exactly.

It's UNBELIEVABLE how much energy I use JUST for some sort of self-consistency checking. It's like the US dept of defense budget.