#rational thought

"If faith cannot be reconciled with rational thinking, it has to be eliminated as an anachronistic remnant of earlier stages of culture and replaced by science dealing with facts and theories which are intelligible and can be validated."

For me, it isn’t about choosing between emotion or logic. It’s about finding a way to merge emotion and logic. Emotional logic (or logical emotion, which is something else more INTJ-ish). There needn’t be a separation.

I’ve lived with my INTJ for over a decade. Needless to say, that rational INTJ thinking has rubbed off onto me. But in a fashion that is uniquely my own. I like looking at situations from both an emotional and logical perspective, then try to make them hold hands.

I spend most of my time thinking. I’m inside my head a lot. I think about the state of the world. I think about paying bills. I think about what I’ll write in my next chapter. And just about any other tidbit that happens my way from the news, at work, the latest book I’m reading.

I also spend a great deal of my time feeling. I worry about the state of the world. I’m annoyed at my bills. I daydream about my writing scenes. I will flitter from one emotion to the next as the mood touches me.

🌸 How to merge logic and emotion? 🌸

I worry about the planet, yet logic will remind me not to get too lost in the emotion because I need to focus on work today.

Paying bills and taxes annoys me to no end, but tireless logic shoves me to do it because otherwise, I’ll lose my internet. And what would I do then? 😋

I may spend days imagining all the future scenes I can write about, but logic will nudge me, saying that I’ll never get it finished unless I start writing something!

Those may seem like simple and obvious ways to deal with life situations. But not as an emotional feely-feeler.

When I was younger, it was nearly impossible to pull myself out of the constant worry about the world. I’d be lost for days in the dread that humans are a failed species and how one day the planet will open her mouth and devour everyone whole.

My writing? All my teenage notebooks were filled with nothing but descriptions of people and places. I didn’t write many stories. I was stuck in the thrill of creation and never put all the pieces together.

Changing the thought process from solely emotional into an emotional, yet somewhat logical at times person took many years. I’m still working on it. I feel that logic helps me from getting too lost within the tidal waves that can still knock me over. Logic keeps me from drowning. 

The difficult part of changing the thought process involves holding back the emotion just enough to allow logic to walk into the room and drop a few new ideas.

🌸 Back to the original question 🌸 - As an INFP, how would you describe what it feels like to struggle with choosing between emotion and logic?

I’d have to say that the struggle is a real entity. INFPs are intense emotional beings, but we are also intense thinkers. Emotional thinkers. It is so easy, yet also difficult, to give in to what our emotions want from us. And logic can seem like it is trying to curb and prevent what exudes from us naturally. With practice, we can reign in some of the Feelies and regain control both in our minds and in our lives.

Merging emotion and logic isn’t an easy endeavour, but oh the benefits can reveal many new roads on this journey of life. Not to say that emotion doesn’t usually win out for me in some circumstances, though. Haha! Sometimes sparkly will always prevail! 💗