INFP. The Healer

If you are an INFP you likely have a big imagination. Though you can often come across as pleasant and positive, your imagination is equally committed to the darker side. You must somehow feel the whole immensity of life so you can really get what it means to be human. That is the life project of every INFP, to have a heart so big that everyone can live there, no one can be left out.

INFPs are gifted at seeing how people are either aligned or misaligned with themselves, and most long to heal the misalignments within others as well as in themselves.

It's important for INFPs to do what they feel, because feeling the doing and doing the feeling is how they learn and grow. When too much structure or repetition is forced on them they will likely rebel, surprising the people around them who may have thought the INFP didn't have it in them.

Doing what one feels may at first sound superficial, but INFPs can't help but feel deeply into each situation they encounter. They feel all the small and large incongruities in the world within their internal echo chamber. This can lead others to wonder what is bugging an INFP when everything seems alright to everyone else. If their sensitivity is not understood and appreciated this can lead the INFP to shut down their feelings which can be personally disastrous.

For an INFP, the ability to feel and the ability to live are almost synonymous. Without feeling, the life impulse dries up and nothing seems worthwhile or valuable. Life becomes a gray, undifferentiated wasteland. Reputedly INFP types are one of the most vulnerable to depression. Being able to feel is the gateway back to life.

Being able to feel deeply into each situation enables INFP types to gradually acquire their own set of values that then determine the relative importance of their actions. Feeling is more than an emotion. It's a path of discernment. This project of acquiring values through feeling goes on throughout one's lifetime, and may gradually grow into the ability to discern which values are universally applicable to harmonize the human experience. An INFP ultimately wants to feel into and discern the harmonics of life itself, live according to them, and then inspire others to do so as much as possible.

Creativity is a birthright for INFPs though they are often private about what they create, seeing it as a reflection of their sacred inner world. Sharing it with others might seem too revealing. When they are able overcome this block that their sensitivity can create, then they might become extraordinarily productive, blessing the outside world with their inner landscape.

If you are an INFP you have a keen mind for possibilities. You might be able to see many different ways one could solve a particular problem. Seeing so many possibilities can lead to both creativity and paralysis. Which path should I take? An INFP can be especially vulnerable to paralysis when one has to take on a project that demands significant organization. But, if you really value it, the organizational aspects might become part of the fun.

INFP types typically value authenticity over productivity. If you are an INFP you probably need to feel right about something before putting your energy into it. It's more important to do nothing than to pursue something you can't endorse.

Repetitive tasks can feel like torture and often cause you to be more distracted by your imagination. There are so many possibilities, how can a person stick to one routine? Details take second place to concepts and ideas. But once the concept is worked out and valued, you can become incredibly detail oriented.

Your greatest self criticism maybe that you're not productive enough, or conforming enough. Why can't you just get with the program? INFPs aren't really meant to get with the program. They're better at doing something original that lovingly upsets or corrects the status quo for the sake of improving the human condition.

INFP Quotes

“What is most personal is most universal” - Carl Rogers

“To thine own self be true.” - William Shakespeare

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” - Oscar Wilde

“[There is] in me ... a distaste for all that is public, all that belongs to the collective.” - C.S. Lewis

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” - John Lennon

"One love, one heart . . . Let’s get together and feel all right" - Bob Marley