The Value of Understanding (Through MBTI)

Welcome back to another blog here at A Riddled Existence! This website is where my quest for understanding life and fellow humans all comes together in a way that I can share with you all. Thank you for engaging with me!

To begin, let me briefly explain why the MBTI is so valuable, in my perspective.

Since I have started my journey with MBTI, I have found more peace, resilience, and understanding in my own life as well as in others. Personally, I find the world a rather difficult place to be. Not only do I feel like an outcast in most social circles, but I also find my way of thinking and behaving in life to be a bit unusual when I compare myself to others. For the most part though, I have learned to force myself to “fit in” with society in a way that doesn’t seem overly obvious that I “don’t belong.” I don’t go out of my way to behave in ways that aren’t true and authentic to “who I am,” but the knowledge I have acquired from MBTI helped me realize how I could adapt in a place that felt foreign to me.

My personality is largely the reason I have felt like an outsider in this life, but it’s also a combination of other factors, which indeed affect us all, like my relatively severe ADHD, Aphantasia, and my unusual childhood which kept me from learning, developing, and socializing in a normal way compared to other children being raised in my era. For a while, I even felt like an outsider in the MBTI world. I didn’t quite “fit” neatly into the INFP category. I wasn’t “dreamy” in a visual sense, and I’m certainly not “nostalgic” and sentimental like many fellow INFPs are. But after learning more about myself, embracing MBTI, and combining that with my specific life experiences and physical/mental differences, I feel that I “figured myself out.” Now I can live peacefully enough, knowing that my mind works this specific way and that most of the people I’m engaging with in my society aren’t going to relate. Due to my understanding of myself, however, I was able to find specific friend groups, activities, and even a partner (with whom I have a child) who understand me and who can relate to me in a way that makes us all feel less alone.

The Importance of Self-Understanding

All this to say that understanding yourself first is essential if you want to understand the world and then understand how you personally fit into it, why, and what you can offer the world with your unique personalities, qualities, and strengths that come with the makeup of your being. It also means that if you “know yourself,” you’ll understand where to find others like yourself, making life a lot less lonely and isolating. I feel really sorry for people who don’t know themselves and for reasons that they can’t control. For instance, if you have a severe disability, like a learning disorder or even some type of undiagnosed autism, ADHD, or something of the sort, you’ll find it really difficult to find anyone to relate to you, even people of the “same type.” You’ll always think to yourself, “Why am I so different?” “Why does no one get me?” “Why are these things so hard for me to do that others seem to think is easy?” I see my sister struggle with these things, and it’s a sad and isolating world.

The first step I’d recommend to anyone, and the first thing I told her, is that she needs to understand her personality type and she needs to seek professional treatment to discover the other unique facets of her brain that something like MBTI cannot tell you. She’s on the search now for services that can better help her identify her unique mind, but learning about yourself is a process and it takes time. However, I believe that it’s the only way to fully be happy with yourself and craft your life in the way that you want it.

A Bit About My Personal Self-Discovery

From my own personal experience, I learned that yes, I am an INFP, but I cannot visualize in my head, AT ALL—totally black (Aphantasia). Due to a lack of visualization, my memory is VERY bad. I cannot really recall much about my childhood, let alone experiences that I could be “nostalgic” about, if my mind were that of a stereotypical INFP. I have nearly no sensory imagination, aside from auditory, which I believe is why I’m so keen on writing melodies and singing. I am very hyper, scattered, and impulsive (which is actually something that Blake from Stellarmaze attributes to Extroverted Intuition.) So maybe ADHD can still be summed up into a personality function; I’m not sure. But I do believe that it makes my mind a bit different from typical INFPs, who seem content being relatively sedentary, relaxing for long hours reading, sitting in nature, or doing other motionless activities. As much as I’d love to do those things for long bouts of time, there’s an internal fire that burns inside of me, keeping me from being able to do anything for very long.

The other key element that makes me different is my radical childhood, which due to unfortunate circumstances, inhibited me from being socialized, educated, and exposed to modernity for the most crucial part of my young adolescent development. Despite these differences making me feel even more isolated, they actually have become a gift in my life when I accept my past and my mind’s wiring. Instead of moping about the way that I am and the “disabilities” that I have, I can choose to use my personal experiences to relate to others in ways that I know others couldn’t, who haven’t had the same experiences. So, all in all, I feel that I have an extra layer of understanding due to these factors. I’m not necessarily an optimist by nature, but I don’t see the value in throwing “pity parties” for yourself constantly, because it’ll only stagnate your growth intellectually, and that will never lead you to a path for a better life.

All of this “ranting” to say: learn about yourself as much as you possibly can, and if you need help, I’m here. Book a session, let’s chat, and most of all, let’s find a way to make your life better, either on your own or with some guidance.

Philosophy Tidbit:

Inspiration from Friedrich Nietzsche – the concept of “Amor Fati” which can translate to “Love Your Fate.” Not your “fate” in a “fatalistic” sense, but rather in the sense that you find acceptance with your past, rather than the denial of the parts that you don’t want to accept were part of it. It means “loving” or, in less jovial terms, accepting everything that has happened, and wanting nothing to be different, because your past is what made you who you are, and to deny that is to deny yourself and your life, which is ultimately Nihilism.

Anyways, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this read!

Yours Sincerely, Krystal Blake