advice on "letting people in"

So this is long but I'm trying to start talking to an INFJ myself actually right now and I got carried away trying to think from your perspective in order to answer your question because I found it to be a good reminder of a lot of things. I dunno about r/INFJ but walls of text are not frowned upon at r/INTP so I proceeded in the way of my people and hopefully it's not too out of place here. And yes we just analyze and say everything we've have. If later you find yourself wondering what person is behind a post like this. It's all or nothing with us, and we don't see it as a lot of "work" really, so there's no crazed-individual here just the friendly neighborhood INTP everything is under control. Ok properly prepped you have been.

These aren't direct answers to your question as much as just things I noticed about INFJ after being in a relationship with one.

  1. Be open to idea that your inner world isn't as sacred and unapproachable as you think. I dated an INFJ and she almost died when she made the decision to show me her poetry on a coffee date once. It was just poetry. No doubt meaningful, but objectively, and upon first glance, it was just poetry. She seemed relieved and confused at the same time by my reaction, which if I recall was a muted one somewhat. On the one hand it turned out to be a pretty casual gesture actually overall, and not the challenge she anticipated, which was cool for her, but yet on the other hand she seemed almost surprised I didn't instantly absorb all of the imbued meaning at once. (Of course I'm just reading her mind in this.) I read it and gave it back to her and told her it was really interesting. I'm kind of a fast reader which may have added to the effect, but it was like it was over too fast or something.

You'll have to be the judge of what exactly happened there, but it was an interesting example to me.

This happened a few times over the course of our relationship. And I think she started to see that stuff that was dramatic for her to share wasn't that mind-blowing in fact to do so. So she began to do it more often and easily. And still very often, objectively just the propositional content of the things she explained or showed me was really commonplace to a degree, and even to be expected if you knew the girl. Not to say nothing was ever flatly unique, but it hardly always was

It seemed to me like INFJ (and I didn't know MBTI at the time, but I did start theorizing this) maybe sentimentalizes reality or adds metaphorical or unique meanings to it and the way they process it. I noticed she would do this sometimes with certain day-to-day things just kinda unconsciously, and I wondered if that's what maybe was going on to an extent with some of her inner thoughts and what made them seem ultimately "weighty" to express. Just a theory.

Me being INTP though coulda helped though I dunno. I never laugh at people's ideas if they are serious, and I'm pretty good at detecting meaning and will analyze anything really. So that could have contributed to a certain comfort level. Also I know what it's like to sorta feel there is a disconnect between my mind and the rest of the world, creating some empathy I didn't often mention but looking back I think she mighta detected. So that may have helped too.

But yea honestly still a lot of stuff was not anything like "crazy" to share with anyone.

Maybe it's just because "expectations" are so high with the INFJ? I dunno. That's another thought. I think there's something to it, but regardless, I'd suggest maybe watch how much "meaning" your putting into things versus how much meaning their actually is when you're just expressing them in their "basic form" so-to-speak.

/r/infj Thread