INFP Introverts: The 64-Color Box

“Contrary to popular belief, giftedness is not characterized by high intelligence alone…”*

“On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, INFP is a rare personality type, found in only about 4% of the general population. Yet, of the possible 16 types, it is the one most frequently found for gifted people. This scarcity, coupled with their extreme intelligence, renders them seldom understood and, thus, rarely validated in relationships. The following material is based on qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with eight highly-gifted INFP adults.

Continue reading “INFP Personality Type in Gifted People”

Characteristics of Gifted Adults
Giftedness Self-Test

Giftedness: There appears to be three sorts of childhoods and three sorts of adult social adaptations. The first of these may be called “the committed strategy.” These individuals were born into upper middle-class families with gifted and well-educated parents and often with gifted siblings. They sometimes even had famous relatives. They attended prestigious colleges, became doctors, lawyers, professors, or joined some other prestigious occupation, and have friends with similar histories. They are the optimally-adjusted. They are also the ones most likely to disbelieve that the exceptionally-gifted can have serious adjustment problems.

The second kind of social adaptation may be called “the marginal strategy.” These individuals were typically born into a lower socio-economic class without gifted parents, gifted siblings, or gifted friends. Often, they did not go to college at all but, instead, went right to work immediately after high school, or even before. And, although they may superficially appear to have made a good adjustment to their work and friends, neither work nor friends can completely engage their attention. They hunger for more intellectual challenge and more real companionship than their social environment can supply. So they resort to leading a double life. They compartmentalize their life into a public sphere and a private sphere. In public, they go through the motions of fulfilling their social roles, whatever they are, but, in private, they pursue goals of their own. They are often omnivorous readers and sometimes unusually expert amateurs in specialized subjects. The “double life strategy” might even be called the genius ploy, as many geniuses in history have worked at menial tasks in order to free themselves for more important work. Socrates, you will remember was a stone mason, Spinoza was a lens grinder, and even Jesus was a carpenter. The exceptionally-gifted adult who works as a parking lot attendant while creating new mathematics has adopted an honored way of life and deserves respect for his courage, not criticism for failing to live up to his abilities. Those conformists who adopt the committed strategy may be pillars of their community and make the world go around but, historically, those with truly original minds have more often adopted the double life tactic. They are ones among the gifted who are most likely to make the world go forward.

And finally there are “the dropouts.” These sometimes bizarre individuals were often born into families in which one or more of the parents were not only exceptionally gifted but exceptionally maladjusted themselves. This is the worst possible social environment that a gifted child can be thrust into. His parents, often driven by egocentric ambitions of their own, may use him to gratify their own needs for accomplishment. He is, to all intents and purposes, not a living human being to them, but a performing animal, or even an experiment. That is what happened to Sidis, and may be the explanation for all those gifted who “burn out” as he did.

Source: TPS

“I have the same problem as Marilyn. We attract people the way honey does bees but they’re generally the wrong kind of people. People who want something from us—if only our energy. We need a period of being alone to become ourselves.” —Montgomery Clift

Empaths not only pick up others’ emotions, they can project emotions that will get picked up by those on the same frequency, as well…

The word “empathy” derives from the Greek words “empatheia” meaning “passion” and “pathein” meaning “to experience, suffer.” According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, “Empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”

As humans, our empathic skills are always turned on—as with all things, we just need to be open to receiving the messages. It’s like a radio; it may be playing, but are you listening?

If you are a healer, you are always adjusting your frequency like an antenna—just as an empath does—to help others. Not all empaths are sympathetic. Empaths feel emotions of others but do not have to feel sympathy for them. Empaths, for the most part, are compassionate though—with a desire to heal and help others.

One can be an empath from childhood. They are called natural empaths who inherit this ability allowing them to experience in higher frequency of awareness. Some people develop their empathic abilities later in life when they are more aware. Most are right-brained in the sense of using the creative intuitive side of the brain—people who use higher frequencies to connect.

Strong empaths must learn how to discern their own emotions from someone else’s.

There are degrees of empathic abilities which vary from empath to empath. Empaths are always sensitive people.

Empaths not only pick up others’ emotions, they can project emotions that will get picked up by those on the same frequency, as well.

We all have certain degrees of empathic abilities. By this I mean we all have the ability to adjust our emotional bodies with that of someone we are close to—especially if there is a love connection. This does not have to be a romantic connection. When you live with someone—or just love them—you can align your emotional body with theirs and feel their pain. The pain can be physical or emotional.

Being empathic means become one with someone or something else. You can connect with plants, animals, just about anything including the universe itself. It is almost a form of remote viewing. You can read emotions and thoughts through vibrational frequency.

Being able to empathize with people often helps you deal with them. You know what to say and do to keep balanced.

Physical Empathy: One can take on the pain of another, especially in the case of twins, their frequencies are often linked.

Emotional Empathy: Most empaths are more attuned to emotions than thoughts. To be an emotional empath is to experience the emotions of others, the positive and negative, pain and suffering and as well as love and compassion.

We become emotional empaths when we watch a film or TV show. We return to soap operas and TV series such as the latest series of reality shows as part of being emotional empaths. Positive people will hope for a positive outcome in the storyline. For negative people it will be the opposite.

Most of us can turn our empathic abilities on and off as we tape in to the frequencies. But, for others, they seem to have no control over what they experience. Those in control embrace the subject and those not in control feel a loss of power and hate it.

Under stress, awareness is heightened as well as empathic abilities. It is best to pause and go back to the emotions you experienced before the negative ones surfaced—then detach.

If you have empathic gifts, you also want to understand and control what is happening to you—to manage your empathic abilities and not become overwhelmed.

The TV series Star Trek had an episode called “The Empath,” about an alien woman with empathic abilities. The lesson in the program was about overcoming one’s fears. Fears paralyze us, which creates more fear.

To increase empathic abilities, you most open the “right side” of your brain, moving the logical mind aside. Begin with something creative—art, listening to music, meditation, yoga, writing for pleasure, being in nature or in the water, etc.

Source

“INFPs are very aware of social injustice and empathize with the underdog. Their empathy for the underdog and hyper-awareness of social injustice makes them extremely compassionate and nurturing…”*

“A key word for this type is empathy. INFP children will often be the ones to ask their parents why they didn’t give the homeless man spare change, or why that woman is crying.”*

“…the INFP internally feels his or her life intensely. In the relationship arena, this causes them to have a very deep capacity for love and caring which is not frequently found with such intensity in the other types. The INFP does not devote their intense feelings towards just anyone, and are relatively reserved about expressing their inner-most feelings. They reserve their deepest love and caring for a select few who are closest to them.”*

“INFPs have the ability to see good in almost anyone or anything. Even for the most unlovable the INFP is wont to have pity.”*