7 Signs The INFJ Is Mentally At Their Prime
With extroverted feeling at the forefront of their emotional welfare, INFJs have a unique way of determining where they’re at with their mental state. Due to their continuously fluctuating mental health combined with their underlying mental resilience, sometimes it’s easy for them to even overlook when they’re feeling their best. So.. what are the signs they INFJ is in their prime state of mind?
7 Signs The INFJ Is Mentally At Their Prime
1. They Accurately Separate Their Emotions From Others
High levels of empathy are extremely common with INFJs. However, this tendency comes as a bit of a double-edged sword. While it allows them to obtain a keen understanding of people and their feelings on a deeper level, they're also susceptible to absorbing not only positive, but negative emotions as well.
That danger of crossed wires and overloaded feelings means a healthy INFJ will regularly have to check in with themselves to identify and differentiate their own emotions to process them accordingly.
INFJs must set both emotional and physical boundaries with their loved ones to help separate themselves from the impact of these emotions. While this can take a number of forms, often it involves putting time limits on certain conversations or boundaries with certain connections that they find considerably draining.
From the outside, these kinds of actions can come across as cold, callous and even a sign of mental instability. When in reality, it’s their attempt to resolve the tension these emotions cause without putting the person down.
2. They Make a Point of Not Taking Themselves and Others Too Seriously
Whether most INFJs may not admit it, despite their understanding nature, their evaluations of people and self normally come with an underlying sense of serious critiquing. This habit can come with both its positives and negatives, however, a healthy INFJ usually holds a rather compassionate view towards their (personally-defined) shortcomings.
It’s not that their rather serious side dissipates entirely, but with proper mental stability, they’re able to accurately balance it with the ability to see and experience joy in their day-to-day life. They know there's a time for every emotion— and that includes joy and happiness.
And with proper mental stability, they’re able to use their intuition accurately, without the interruption of their overthinking ways. Plus, since overthinking tends to be the habit most detrimental to their mental state, by purposefully taking a step back and not allowing this overanalyzing to take over, they’re already a few steps ahead.
3. They Don't Avoid the Conflict in Their Lives
It’s fair to say that most INFJs have an innate desire for harmony both internally and externally, in all areas of their life. In fact, when they don’t know any better, they’ll fight tooth and nail to avoid a pot being stirred.
This can certainly be helpful when they’re meant to be the mediator of a situation, but avoidance may not always be the best solution. Truth be told, unhealthy INFJ will almost always run from conflict because of how unpleasant it is for them.
This ultimately leads to conflict impacting them even more than it should, building up frustrations or uncommunicated feelings until facing the conflict isn’t as calm and collected as they once hoped. In contrast, one of the main signs the INFJ is mentally at their best is when they deal with what’s thrown at them with confidence and class.
They’re motivated to find a solution to conflict, despite it making them incredibly uncomfortable. People with the INFJ personality type know that conflicts won’t always resolve the way they hope, but that the process of working toward a solution can still lead to valuable lessons, a deeper understanding and possibly even a deeper connection with others.
4. They’ve Developed a Vision for Their Future
One of the quickest ways to turn an INFJ’s mental steadiness upside down is to cut them off or distract them from their sense of purpose. All INFJs have a natural forward-looking perspective, and a mentally healthy INFJ is bound to have some sort of a vision for their future.
Often based on an insight they’ve gained in terms of how the world could change for the better, the vision often takes the form of a novel idea they want to share, a fresh perspective, or even just a new way of helping others. This vision could lead them into life-altering actions such as writing a book, starting a business, starting a family, or volunteering in an organization they’re passionate about.
While all INFJ visions look different from one another, there's always a common denominator of a deeper purpose inside them that they can’t help but build towards and fulfill. Sure, they’re future projections may be a little idealistic, but they can envision these ideals knowing that it will be just as good if it doesn’t turn out exactly as expected.
5. They Accept Where They’re at in Their Present Life
Future envisions are great and all, but for the INFJ, the biggest challenge they face is being happy with where they’re currently at in life. The mentally fit INFJ is going to remind themselves that their journey through life is about becoming and not arriving - they focus on the journey rather than the destination.
They overcome roadblocks, traffic jams, and detours with equal grace toward both themselves, their intuition and the people around them. This also involves what they perceive as mistakes or failures on their part, or on that of others.
As a healthy INFJ, they very well may look forward to becoming the ideal version of themselves, but at the same time they wouldn’t consider themselves a failure every moment prior to attaining that golden standard.
This usually comes not only in the form of contentment, which can be rather difficult for the INFJ to naturally feel, but also intentional gratitude. In fact, intentionally replacing discontentment with gratitude is one of the most important signs of the INFJ’s mental health being at its best.
6. They Can Acknowledge and Celebrate Their Achievements They’ve Already Reached
Similar to the INFJ’s ability to be content with where they’re currently at in life, another key sign of proper mental stability in an INFJ is their ability to reflect on and celebrate their past wins and milestones.
Having an idealistic and future-focused nature often leads the INFJ to keep that focus entirely on the next thing. It’s tempting for them to repetitively question ‘what’s next?’ And while this continuous self-evaluation can give INFJs a sense of motivation and drive, it also can make it difficult for them to recognize everything that they've already accomplished.
It comes to a point where nothing they do is good enough to please their self-critical ways. This attitude is ultimately self-defeating for both the INFJ and those around them, particularly because they tend to have such lofty goals.
In fact, if an INFJ hasn’t yet learned the value of focusing on the process towards their goals, you may very well find them impossible to console during their frequent periods of manic goal-completion. In contrast, a healthy INFJ makes a point of pausing to reflect not just on where they’re going, but also where they’ve come from and what they’ve already accomplished.
They’ll celebrate those things and reflect on all the fulfillment they provide. Positively, they eventually realize that by choosing to track their accomplishments, they’ll actually find that it fuels their journey. And..
7. They Take Time for Self Care
Due to their introverted intuition and extroverted feeling functions, INFJs can’t help but to focus on others. With an endless effort of trying to find ways of helping the people around them, this external focus often leads them to their own detriment.
This helping instinct is often a motivating factor for both their personal and professional lives, so if they don’t know how to take care of themselves, they can quickly work themselves to burnout. A healthy INFJ in this instance, won’t just show this caring for others - they’ll also reserve some of that same care and concern for themselves.
They know that in order to continue caring for others to the best of their ability, they must also take the necessary time for recharging themselves. This dedicated time for self care looks different for every INFJ, but the benefits remain the same.
Whether it’s taking a few deep breaths throughout the day, actively planning some time for solitude, or even focusing on a hobby they enjoy - whatever form it comes in, they’ll keep these kinds of activities a habit in order to recharge and re-energize themselves for the sake of both them and others.