Hey, thanks a lot for your helpful blog, I appreciate it very much and all the hard work you put in answering our many questions. I have made a lot of new friends last year after not being very authentic (out of fear of being judged negatively) and sociable for a long time. I'm very grateful for that and I feel much more stable and grounded and connected than before. However, I still have a hard time when it comes to dating. Whenever someone takes longer to reply (a day or two days), I get (1)
[conβt: very anxious and assume itβs because they are bored or uninterested or because I can only hold their interest for a short time because I have nothing interesting to offer in depth. I guess that I am basically thinking that I am unattractive to guys (even if there is a lot of counter evidence in my past). Itβs only romantically linked since I donβt have a problem with friends taking a while to answer - I know that they are busy and will get back to me. Iβm enfj]
Romantic attachments are much more intimate and carry greater potential for harsh judgments. Enfjs who lack confidence in their ability to contribute something good to relationships usually suffer from unhealthy idealization, which is a common NF problem. Enfjs idealize through Fe-Ni and reflexively make judgments through social comparison. When they like someone romantically, it is usually because they have put that person up on a pedestal. Placing someone on a pedestal means that you judge them as βbetterβ for some reason and, therefore, their judgment is honored as being more valuable, meaningful, and trustworthy.Β
Idealizing makes it possible for enfjs to artificially improve their sense of self-worth through association with another, because being judged positively by someone whose judgment they trust would be quite a boon to the ego, but this conveniently overlooks the fact that being judged negatively by them would be an equally powerful blow to the ego, akin to existential annihilation. When your sense of self-worth is obtained through the judgment of someone youβve put on a pedestal, you are at their mercy, not to mention that you open yourself up to exploitation. In short, itβs hard to feel secure in your relationships when youβre unable to treat yourself as equal to other people, when you automatically place yourself in a lower position that constantly threatens to trigger fears of inferiority/inadequacy. Youβve judged yourself negatively before anyone else has.
The root of enfj insecurity about other people is: 1) low self-worth, and 2) illusions, sometimes extreme ones, about the worth of people in general. To tackle the first problem requires auxiliary Ni development so that you are able to reflect with more insight into who you are and how to feel genuine self-worth via self-actualization rather than relying on the judgment of others. The second problem requires that you give up the bad habit of compulsively judging peopleβs worth and comparing them to each other based on very superficial standards. Itβs tiring and counter-productive to always be judging people, judging yourself, judging how others judge you - itβs a poor use of Ti. What makes a person a good and worthy person? Itβs not what you currently believe, otherwise youβd be able to grasp your own worth.Β
Mature and healthy Fe means recognizing the common humanity in us all, including oneself. When you suffer low self-worth, it means that you donβt accept the truth of yourself and/or you donβt want to confront the negative aspects of yourself - the more you try to disown the negative parts of yourself, the more you feel plagued by them (because you canβt run from yourself forever). When you feel insecure, you have to own that insecurity completely. When you donβt own your feelings and emotions, you project them and believe that they are caused by something external, and then you seek to control that external thing in hopes of eliminating your insecurity - this is the source of enfj compulsive, controlling, or impulsive behavior (Se loop). You feel insecure? So what?Β Why is that the end of the world? Accept it. Let it be. Let you be you. Let go of all the fucking judgment.













