I’ve known lots of INFPs and INFJs, and the one common denominator that unites them in their misery is low-energy.
Low energy is when you can’t move a muscle. Just the thought of physically exerting yourself makes you feel your energy draining away. And there is nothing you can think of that would give you energy in a low-energy state except doom-scrolling on the internet, or maybe eating a donut.
Being in a low-energy state is the worst state I can think of. I feel like I could handle anything if I had high energy.
I have all these bristling ideas and things and dreams that I wanna do, but I’m like how the fuck can I do them if I can’t even lift a spoon to feed myself the medicine I need to get better.
Waiting for motivation
This is one of the primary errors in INFP INFJ judgment, but is actually the key as to how sensor people do things. They don’t wait to be motivated. Motivation follows action, not the other way around.
What gives you energy?
But then even apriori to this is the fact that sensors derive energy from things and situations that intuitive feelers don’t. This is the second error that touchy-feely intuitives make when they set about to set the world on fire, or more basically, to simply be normal productive people in the work-a-day world.
What gives you energy? That would be the question here, and it’s quite an important question because there are phenomenal differences in what one person gets energy from versus another. And I’m not talking about donuts.
I’m talking about fields and endeavors and activities and people. If you put yourself in an environment where you can’t derive energy, then why would you expect to have energy? It’s like gas in a car. Every car has a need for different fuel. Some are diesel, some are gas-powered, and yet others are electric.
Most cars have been gas-powered up until now, but what if you were a leaf-powered car, powered by photosynthesis, and you needed leaves in order to propel yourself forward into the fray. If you were drinking gas your whole life, don’t you think it would be unfair to say you were low-energy when in fact you just couldn’t derive energy from fossil fuels. And moreover, those fuels were damaging your engine, which leads to even more low-energy.
Now let me tell you a little bit about myself as an INFJ specimen of the breed so as to ground some of this talk of low-energy, because I have been down a long road powered by nothing, which led to me in my earlier life, hitting the lows of this condition.
I was trying to get shit done, trying to make goals, trying just to maneuver my body into the space-time environment without getting drained by all the people places and things likely to do that, which as other intro-intuitives can tell you is nearly everything.
I had what my good friend called a leaky aura. This means that I bled out energy astrally, which is just another name for the malady I’m speaking of in INFP INFJ. Recently, I was thinking philosophically about what energy is. I went all the way back to basics. I was thinking about what Mars is astrologically. It’s energy, right?
What I discovered is that ISTP is the Martian type. They excel in uniting all their faculties in one big melange of action machinery : their body, their lives, and moreover, their mind. What I further found is that Mars/ISTP is not so much the physical itself, it’s the mind of the physical person. It’s the intelligence that takes all the available resources of the physical body and propels it into action to accomplish certain objectives. And the ISTP is specifically gifted with this intelligence. The most important part of my discovery was that this gift of the ISTP is not primarily about being gifted with physical strength. It’s more how they take the strength that they have and use it to get shit done.
It therefore follows that low-energy is the lack of this intelligence, not the lack of physical strength itself. Capishe?
High-energy is the action mindset. You have a toolbox, and along with this toolbox, comes tools. You have a screwdriver in there that’s good for certain jobs, like screwing in screws for example. But you also have a hammer, and that’s not good for screwing in screws. If you tried to bang in a screw with a hammer you might find yourself at odds with your fellow workmen. They might think you’re kinda stupid. Imagine how much energy you would waste from banging in a screw with a hammer. See what I mean?
So, the cure for low-energy is to put yourself in the proper mindset, which isn’t physical vitality itself, but the mindset and intelligence that creates the state of physical vitality.
Like for example, INFPs think to themselves <<Yeah, I’d love to do cardio, but I don’t have enough energy to even begin>>. This is an error in thinking which ISTP Martian people do not fall into. They know the reason you don’t have energy is because you don’t exercise. Cardio gives you energy, but if you are feeling low-energy, you feel like you don’t have enough energy to do it. Vicious circle. The only answer is to just fucking do it. If you know objectively that it will give you energy to exercise, then what do smart people do?
They exercise!
Another example of how INFP INFJ sabotage themselves is when they finally get around to doing cardio, they either work too hard at it or do too much. They think that energy is how much effort you put into EXERTING YOURSELF. This error in INFP INFJ thinking makes ISTP Martian people appear like they must have been blessed with all this natural physical energy. However, the only thing they really have that INFPs don’t is an ease in using the introverted thinking function, as applied to the physical world. This doesn’t mean how much energy, strength, or force with which they apply themselves, but rather the intelligence with which they apply themselves in the physical world. ISTPs use their introverted thinking to determine how much energy is needed for a task, how much they are currently expending, and whether they are doing the task with the right tool and technique so they don’t exhaust their energy unnecessarily by trying to bang in a screw with a hammer.
Decisiveness
Just do it. Right?
Yeah, but how?
The key here is that ISTP Martian people make decisions quickly. They think quick, then act quick. Notice this attitude also saves them from bleeding out energy in the following ways:
- Deliberating endlessly on a situation: <<If I do cardio, should I run, do HIIT, or maybe I could just speed-walk, but then if do speed-walking, people might think I look weird…etc>>
- Imagining all these factors in the situation that don’t exist and/or don’t pertain to the immediate consequences of the action at hand.
- Feeling bad about how bad you feel, how your body feels lethargic, yada yada.
An ISTP works with whatever energy is available and with whatever conditions their bodies are in. They repress emotion in order to act intelligently and objectively for the overall good of themselves, and perhaps others they are trying to save (firefighter, for example). Because they size things up quickly and act quickly, they prevent their energy being drained in over-analysis.
In summation, this thinking is the key to correcting low-energy in INFP and INFJ.
What do you think INFPs and INFJs? Do you think your low-energy is truly a result of having less physical energy than your more gifted brothers and sisters? Or is it something else?
Leave your answer in the comments.
Carpe diem!
Until about five years ago, I kept saying I wasn’t a sporty person. I abhorred running and anything that made sweat spring up on my forehead. I simply believed that there are two kinds of people: those who are naturally wired for physical activity (sensors, of course, and maybe ENFPs, who need to channel their hyper-abundant energy into whatever) and those who have to make supernatural (therefore useless) efforts to enjoy such activities.
Then, during the pandemic, I started missing the outdoors so much that I made a vow to go for a walk every single morning. Necessity was my saviour. Walking slowly turned into cycling, then running, and eventually weightlifting.
Am I a sporty person now? I don’t think so. Am I more energetic and action-oriented? Oh yeah!
I can’t speak for INFPs, but as an INFJ, I feel like my Se needs a lot of training before it becomes confident in its abilities and endurance.
Of course, marrying a hyperactive ENFJ didn’t exactly put me on the path to laziness, either.
Blake, would an INFJ guy who doesn’t live a particularily active lifestyle become more active if his partner was a girl who is active, sporty, outgoing etc? Or is this impossible in the long run? Would travelling, hiking and working out be something he would do? Idk why else he would have an interest in a person who loves doing those things…
I’m afraid people with low energy always eventually check out of a relationship because they cannot keep up.
Blake, would an INFJ guy who doesn’t live a particularily active lifestyle become more active if his partner was a girl who is active, sporty, outgoing etc? Or is this impossible in the long run? Would travelling, hiking and working out be something he would do? Idk why else he would have an interest in a person who loves doing those things…
He’d have an interest because her body looks good from doing all those things. Would he be long-term compatible with such a sporty girl? Not unless they share something more. However, for the most sporty INFJs, your best best is to find a Martian or Plutonian INFJ. I know you like those!
Yes, this is a very good point about not understanding how to apply energy. Now I analyze my relationship with sports and understand that everything goes in waves for me. I did yoga, dancing, jogging, bodypump. And it can last about a year on willpower, and then somehow it abruptly ends – and again a period of slump. Somehow I can’t develop a habit, or I just don’t know. And last time I exhausted myself to the point of anemia, although maybe it’s just a coincidence. Now I’m trying to get back to classes, I’m thinking of starting with something easier, like stretching.
Blake, maybe you have some advice on how often. Because I catch myself on the approach that either three times a week, or it’s not serious. And it somehow repels me.
Yes, so we do cardio exercise to stay sane. It’s not a question of being serious about the activity itself, anymore than you would be serious about brushing your teeth. Personally, I do cardio every other day as a minimums goal. That’s the least amount I need to do in order to carry on with the rest of my life, which ain’t about cardio. The concept of MINIMUMS is the way I look at exercise of any sort. What’s the least amount I need to do to stay sane? Similar to brushing my teeth, I don’t care if I like it, it’s just something I do to do the other things in my life. And it is mandatory. When I don’t do cardio (or my clients don’t), I notice a subtle sagging and deficit that could easily be remedied with a minimum amount of cardio. For cardio I do HIIT and/or running. I don’t like either one overly much, but I do like the vitalizing sensation it gives me when I feel depressed for no reason on earth, and then I go running for 20 minutes or so, and then voila! — I’m fine. Honestly, it’s just where humans are at these days, they don’t run or get their heart rate up enough. This is a recipe for disaster. We need to move our bodies vigorously for a minimum amount of time per diem. And in the process we stave off cancer, heart-disease, stress, tone our asses up, our skin looks great, our eyes have a shine to them, so many wonderful side-effects come from cardio exercise. So my approach to it is I just do it and show up no matter what on those alternating days for 20-30 minutes a pop, then I’m done, and I can go about my real business, which is not-cardio. Woe betide you if you don’t do it, because I have seen the results both in myself and my clients. If you don’t do cardio per minimums then depression and lethargy are the result, which leads those introverted intuitives to start pondering the sullied nature of existence when all they need is to get their blood moving. Result = existential crisis averted.
I can testify to this. If you’re INFJ just read and apply any habit book like Atomic Habits or Tiny Habits. On your daily to do lists, put small, achievable, but not too overwhelming tasks that move you towards where you want to go, and complete those every day with a do-or-die mentality. But also forgive yourself if you slip up. It works.
Omg just wanna share this line that came out during my Morning Pages, right at the end (literally on the last line of the last page).
Basically I was ranting about being stuck in an incompatible social environment with people who don’t “get” you (ie say you love literature and are intuitive artistic etc but are stuck with a bunch of left brained logical empirical pragmatic engineer types):
“And you know when you share something you dearly love with someone and they react not with scorn, but with indifference? That is a dagger to the heart a thousand times worse than the most toxic scorn, for it say: ‘your likes don’t matter.’ ”
Omg! Truth bomb. I have absolutely no idea how that came out of me.