cascade

INFP: “Follow your heart” INFJ: “Follow your intuition”

INFP: Inner world of personal values. Introspective with regards to their feelings. INFJ: Inner world of personal hunches. Introspective with regards to their intuition.

INFP: Puts themselves in other people’s shoes to empathize. INFJ: Tries to empathize with others based on an objective understanding of human emotion.

INFP: Personal ethics. A subjective moral compass. Doesn’t really care if you agree. INFJ: Objective ethics. An external source of morality to follow (religion, interpersonal ethics, law, other people, etc.) Cares if you agree (either to coerce you onto their side, switch to your side, or find some middle ground).

INFP: “The world is full of possibilities. The world is an inspiration to my imagination.” INFJ: “The mind contains possibilities. The world is a distraction from my intuitive introspection.”

INFP: Explores new directions and info in an open-minded way to observe new possibilities. INFJ: Sticks only to the info that pertains directly to the hunch that’s caught in their mind’s eye and that they’re struggling to bring to fruition.

INFP: How does the world seem to fit in with my sentimental ideals? INFJ: How does the world seem to fit in with my dispassionate ideas, principles, and systematic models?

INFP: “That’s just the way I feel about it.” INFJ: “That’s just the way I think about it.”

INFP: Retains past experiences and reliable knowledge to recall and apply later. Reminiscent and nostalgic. INFJ: Retains tentative hunches and intuitions to see how they will evolve inside the psyche into something greater, (though still tentative.) Visionary and prospective.

INFP: Deep wisdom through knowledge and experience. INFJ: Deep perspective through intuitive contemplation.

INFP: Recoils from impartiality (or apathy) and from having their opinion influenced by external coercion, to the point where actually doing so is uncomfortable. So they tend to maintain their own sentimental opinion in the face of unpleasant evidence to the contrary, and react harshly to valid criticism. INFJ: Recoils from face-value details and facts, and from observing new information that doesn’t pertain directly to what they’re focusing on, to the point where actually doing so is uncomfortable. So they tend to be oblivious to important details and real-world responsibilities/occurrences outside their area of focus, even if those occurrences are important. They usually freeze up at times where they need to improvise or adapt to changing circumstances. Sometimes trust their gut over the actual observations, even if their gut is wrong.

INFP: Sometimes snaps and becomes overly callous, passive-aggressive, or even combative, or else retains a non-judgmental, non-assertive demeanor. INFJ: Tends to overindulge in sensory gratification or ascetically neglect it.

Edit for additional basic nuances. Some of these may just be confusing, in which case I suggest just sticking to the above differences.

INFP: More interested in sentimental judgments than in the perception of possibilities. Focusing on what’s sentimentally important is a priority over reading between the lines and peering behind the scenes. INFJ: More interested in the perception of possibilities than in sentimental judgments. Reading between the lines and peering behind the scenes is a priority over focusing on what’s sentimentally important.

INFP: More interested in absorbing certain and reliable facts than in forming dispassionate conclusions or dispassionate ideas. Being informed of the certain and obvious facts is more important than being dispassionate in analysis. INFJ: More interested in forming dispassionate conclusions or dispassionate ideas than in absorbing certain and reliable facts. Being dispassionate in analysis is more important than being informed of the certain and obvious facts.

INFP: Uses the outer world as more of a source of raw information to absorb than as a guide, standard, or criteria for decision making. INFJ: Uses the outer world as more of a guide, standard, or criteria for decision making than as a source of raw information to absorb.

I am an INFJ female and I’ve been dating an INFP male (this sounds like mammals but ok). We have a lot in common: we are both very kind and want others to feel good. However we discovered that he wants others to feel good so he doesn’t feel bad whereas I want others to feel good because it makes me happy (there is a difference there). He feels guilty a lot when something he says or thinks hurts someone eventhough it could be something he stands behind. I only feel guilty if I could’ve said or done something better and already knew in the moment I was doing it but weren’t able to adjust myself. He sees the positive in things, I tend to be afraid of the negatives. I am more serious, he is more playfull. I stick to my beliefs he sticks to his routines. I generally talk less, he talks for both of us. He can say something one moment and think about it differently the next. I only speak about what I think when I’m 100% sure about it. He’ll change his mind in hours, I never change my mind. We are both stubborn as HELL. He gets really mad sometimes but gets over it quick, I get passive agressive and remain so for days. After a fight he wants to cuddle, I want space. He knows exactly what he is feeling and why. It takes me a lot of alone time and sometimes weeks to know what I’m feeling and why and what I should do about it. Once I know however I can easily talk about my feelings, he findes it difficult to talk about them. I plan EVERYTHING, he loves options. We both generally don’t like socializing but he can enjoy parties once in a while whilst I can enjoy being in crowdes places (but being left alone). He hates spending money, I can spent a lot when I think something is worth it. We have creative fights a lot (we both work overlapping creative jobs), he thinks I don’t trust his professionality and I think he doesn’t understand what I am visualizing. When we talk I’m more into pinpointing it down and drawing conclusions, he will explore different sides to a topic. We both love people most of the time. When we hate them it’s because (I) lost trust in them and (he) got hurt by them. We both feel really misunderstood, I want to be understood and understand how the world functions with me in it, he enjoys being a special little snowflake. We both have a cognitive paralel world we live in. He travels there in his dreams (probably the reason he hates to wake up in the morning and it can take him hours), I live there all the time (probably the reason I jump out of bed in the morning). I love doing new things, he loves doing the things he likes over and over again. We both love animals and cute things. We both cry a lot (I cry a lot for a woman, he cries “a lot” for a man). We both can have random burtst of ideas. He likes to admire them from a distance I’ll say ‘let’s go get there!’. I have very little stuff and am very tidy, he keeps things from years ago and forgets where he put them. When he’s happy he can get very childish, when I am happy I let my funny side out. We both love intelligent humor, we both pick up on things other people miss. We both have a strong sense of what’s right and wrong although he’ll usually commit and I usually just drop people that have values that don’t align with mine. He’s better in seing the overall pictures, I’ll get stuck on details. He is sweet, I am caring. Metaphorically speaking he is probably like a disillusioned honey bee and I’m more like a serious butterfly ;-)

There is probably a lot more, but these are some of the things we come across in our daily lives. Hope this gives you an insight in INFJ/INFP-ness ;-)

The unspoken

getting a cat today (!)

Lumi is your name. Finnish for snow. 

The first snow fell today,

I hope you’re as fluffy, fluttery, light and alive as the snow. 

cuddles, hopes and streams of lightness from you.

aphex twin - stone in focus