Being an INFJ personality type comes with many gifts, but it can also feel like it comes with many burdens at the same time. In addition to being highly sensitive (sometimes to an extreme degree), many INFJs also struggle with high amounts of anxiety and depression.
A lot of INFJs report that they experience a low-key depression running in the background of their lives, even when it appears that everything is going well on the surface. In fact, what might be the most frustrating to INFJs about the way they experience anxiety and depression is that it can be very difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is that is causing them to feel this way. So, they then feel guilty for even feeling anxious or depressed, because in their mind they have “no good reason” to feel that way. Continue Reading
One of the biggest problems INFJ personality types deal with is avoidance, and many of us don’t even know that we’re doing it or how much it’s holding us back. Avoidance in INFJ personality types may show up as social anxiety, procrastination, perfectionism, shyness, and/or denial about things that need to change in our life.
One of the reasons we have such strong avoidant tendencies is because we get emotionally overwhelmed. Almost every INFJ is also a Highly Sensitive Person, and this high sensitivity extends to our emotional system as well. We are hurt easily by criticism and dragged down quickly by pessimism or any other kind of excessive negativity. We are also hyper-aware of the tone of voice and moods of others. All of these things can cause us to experience an emotional storm within ourselves. These storms are hard to weather and so, as a way to protect ourselves, most INFJ personality types avoid anything that might cause one of these storms within us.
However, there is a way to deal with emotional overwhelm for INFJs that doesn’t feed into our unhelpful avoidant tendencies. I talk about this more in the video below:
I’m teaching a new class this September called Energy and Intuition for INFJs and I’m going to be covering topics like these, and so much more. We’re going to be learning about INFJ emotions, the INFJ/empath connection, how to use INFJ intuition to navigate our frequent emotional storms, INFJ anxiety and depression, and more. If this sounds like something you need right now, be sure to sign up for my newsletter HERE to get all the updates.
This is the third and final video in this series as I get ready to launch this new class, and I’ve already gotten so many messages from INFJs letting me know that this is exactly what they need and they’re so excited to begin—and so excited to meet other INFJs. Many of us INFJs don’t know a single other INFJ and it can get really lonely. I’m hoping this class will change that for a lot of people.
If you have any questions at all, please send them to me here. I’ll be opening registration in just a couple of days, on Thurs Sep 8. I’ll see you then!
Lauren Sapala is the author of The INFJ Writer and The INFJ Revolution. You can get a free copy of her book on creative marketing for writers by signing up for her newsletter HERE.
All writers have problems with writing at one time or another, but writers who are also of the INFJ personality type tend to have a very specific set of problems when it comes to writing. INFJ writers don’t always link these problems to their personality type, but each one of them is rooted in their temperament as intuitive, emotionally-centered introverts. Once the connection is made, that’s when the INFJ writer can begin to overcome them.
Here are the 3 biggest writing problems an INFJ writer struggles with: Continue Reading
