Tell me more about being ISFP!

How do I experience life? I don't know. I just live it... I guess everyone lives his life. My Se is not very strong, but I have higher-than-average Ni, I think. So I am very introverted, and sometimes get unhealthy.

I feel like my Se is weaker-than-average. I rely it to "get information," which is really helpful and vital. I like to walk around, watching people, places, trees, buildings, walls, cars, dogs, stuff. I enjoy small things, and listen to music. I tend to get obsessed with one song and listen to it all the time until I get tired of it. Not sure if that's an ISFP thing though.

A good afternoon would be a walk around my nice little neighborhood, then have a cup of coffee, and browse some art magazines and food magazines. Maybe read an article in The New York Times, Washington Post, or Times. Don't read that very often though. Even though I like reading, it's kind of tiring for me.

I like activities. I am an artist. I am one of those people who bring sketchbooks with them all the time and find incredible joy in sketching people and composing a scene on a piece of paper. I like working with my hands. It is always fun and a pleasure for me. When I was a kid, I LOVED jigsaw puzzle and model building, putting bits and parts together to form a car, a motor cycle, robots, etc. Now I still very much enjoy building things like those IKEA furniture. I also like exercise. I had treadmill routines several times, not now. I also practice certain martial arts, not working very hard on it though, lol. Learning new skills are fun, too, but more of some techniques or practical skills.

So I guess my Se is 1) allow me to gather everyday information, to see beauty and enjoy that pleasure; 2) make me like to do things. I say that my Se is weak because I don't feel like I actively "seek pleasure" or travel all the time. I don't have that much energy. I have heard that some ISFPs like to stare or "study" inanimate objects. I sometimes find myself doing that, too.

I believe that there are certain ways to engage your Se more. I don't know what they are, for INFPs. Se is really quite simple, but Ne is a mystery to me.

Se is a non-verbal function. I think it works best and strong when it is non-verbal. Like you just absorb the scene with your 5 senses, without thinking much about it. Just stare the thing in front of you. I am not a very verbal person, and being an artist make it even worse, because if I find the keyboard I am using now and the computer cords across from me to be fascinating, I can simply take out my sketchbook and draw them down, instead of trying to describe them in words, and then I can skip words. Things like smell and sound are also hard to be described well in words, for me.

"I want to participate and know what it is to be alive via my senses, not hover over life with a microscope; detached, aloof, and impersonal."
Hmm.. I don't know. Well I have described what it is like for me already, but I also think that having Se doesn't make you not "DAI (detached, aloof, and impersonal)." They are attitudes that don't have much to do with Se, so you can have Se but still be DAI. I guess for aux-Se people, they can be DAI, too, but in a different way. I think it's easy for Fi-dom to become DAI because that's an introverted and non-verbal function, and for ISFP, it is also that Fi-Ni loop.

Apathy and aloofness are not uncommon among ISFPs. I am of both. Sometimes I feel like I don't really care about anything, being apathetic. I can just do things I like to do, see fun and interesting things everyday, have some nice food, etc., without having a purpose of life, so Freedom is really important to me. I don't believe that there exists a purpose of life, at least not someone telling you what that is, and there is not a fixed thing, or simply none, one has to do or accomplish in his life.

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So I do like some abstract things and theories as long as they are not extremely abstract. I have read something that is double abstraction, abstracting some abstract ideas, and I definitely could not comprehend that material. I like some philosophies, theories, ethics, politics etc. But I really don't like aesthetics. I dislike something about that idea. I think art is to be created, not to be theorized. It can be a simple creation. Art is very much part of life, and from everyday human life. Theorizing it dehumanize it, I feel. And I find aesthetic theory kinda hard, too. Oh and I can't handle philosophical and abstract discussion very well. It has to go slow. My mind is not very fast on that. But I do like reading them, except that I read slow and get tired pretty quick. I don't always like purely philosophical books/essays because it's too un-life, and sometimes too abstract for me to process. And for example, that "if a tree falls in a forest" debate, honestly I don't care, especially it's something that has no answer to it and the debate can just go on and on, and, really, you have no way to think about that question.

Not sure if I have answered your question, just blabbing....

Moss Icon said:

What do you think are the main differences between INFPs and ISFPs? How do you experience Se? How do you experience life? How do you feel about abstraction and theory and all that stuff? Do you find people banging on about intangible concepts and their disregard for/subjectifying of physical reality tiresome? Do you think such things are largely N/S-related?

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I'm not really sure if the difference between INFPs and ISFPs is really that pronounced. We both share Fi, and that's how I view and make most of my decisions about life.
For me, when I'm in my Se moments I get to tune out the thoughts in my head, and really focus on what's going on in the outside world around me. Whether it's working out at the gym, appreciating nature, or putting together a puzzle, I take it all in until I get overstimulated. It's really hard for me to describe because it's something I just do.
I'm not a fan of abstraction and theory. If I can tie in a practical application or think it out thoroughly, I can get it but it takes me longer than other people. It's not like I avoid it like the plague, it's just not as interesting to me as what I find aesthetically pleasing.

I used to think I was an ESFP, since I always got so caught up in the moment. I realized recently that I'm an ISFP - Fi is more important to me than Se, and I like it more. My life was being directed by the idea that I had in my head of the 'ideal person' - Extraverted Sensors, basically.

So ISFPs, I'd like to get your spin on things. What do you think are the main differences between INFPs and ISFPs?

INFP's, imo, are slightly more reserved and have ideals that are less realistic, but they have an easier time figuring out how to achieve their ideals, if that makes sense.

How do you experience Se?

I'll give you an example of something I noticed today - I looked over at an open window, and the way the sun glowed across it and the summer smells and sounds of birds and insects coming from outside were beautiful in a unique way. The trees gently swaying and the way everything came together was just perfect. I try to feel the beauty from all sorts of things in my inner being, and it works most of the time.

How do you experience life?

I feel that life is about figuring out who you are, and what's right for you. I like observing how different people live and their ideals (from individuals to whole cultures), so that I can try out ideas that I like. Sometimes I internalize those and they stick, but much of the time they don't and I move on.

This summer, I went to Germany to stay with family, and I loved certain things there - how beautiful everything was, and how effortlessly everyone tolerated each other and harmonized everything. I loved how the people there are very individualistic in their own way, and I support how many of them chose to never have any kids (or very few) because that was right for them. I decided I like Europeans better than most Americans.

I like watching a few niche TV shows, because I can see how those people decide things and how the characters develop over time. I might even try to experience something they did.

How do you feel about abstraction and theory and all that stuff? Do you find people banging on about intangible concepts and their disregard for/subjectifying of physical reality tiresome?

Tbh, yes. I have little to no patience for ideas/conversations that can't be applied to real life.

Also, I feel that it's unnecessary to go through all the possibilities that come up in life because I easily decide which choice is the best. It just kind of comes to me - so why would I bother sorting through everything or coming up with new stuff?

Do you think such things are largely N/S-related?

Yep.

My dad is an infp and I'm an isfp. A big difference I have noticed between us is that he tends to talk and theorize about everything, where as I prefer to just live in the moment and take everything in rather than put every little thing into words. I'm definitely not abstract and hate abstract thinking, it bores me and I lose interest quickly. Usually people tell me I don't talk much and seem reserved, but I think I'm just content observing than having to talk about everything.

How do you experience life?
I enjoy having friends and being social, but only to a certain extent. Sometimes I'll need to socialize and talk to people, but usually I am content hanging out in my room just thinking about things, whether it's my latest hobby or a life problem. Personal space is a must for me. I cannot hang out with someone all day with no breaks, at some point I have to break off and be by myself. I am content with a book or just listening to music on a bike ride on a day to day basis.

Thank you all for your great answers.


I asked because, well, as my signature shows, I have a very strong N bias. But I don't feel like I do. I'm becoming more and more impatient with ideas that go nowhere and serve only to undermine other ideas rather than offer some solutions or sense of conclusion. At first I thought this might be a burgeoning J trait, or perhaps just a manifestation of being an Fi Dom (needing to come to a personal conclusion, Introverted-Judging trait an' all that.) But I wondered if it was an S trait: desiring practical and tangible results from conflict.

I'm certainly naturally inclined to be Intuitive. But I've grown tired of Ne consuming my time with abstract musings and unfalsifiable concerns which, I wonder, may not even exist in the mind of an Se user. I've been feeling at my best lately when I go rock-climbing. I feel the same way about snow-boarding (except it's summer now so I can't go!) Living in a world of ideas and possibilities just doesn't appeal to me, I want to do things. Even as a kid, my Intuition was always meant to be the driving force behind actual action. Admittedly that action often never happened... and that bugs me. I want to interact with the world rather than sit around speculating about a world without paying attention to it. Philosophy and all that, it sometimes strikes me that it's essentially just asking what red smells like: unanswerable questions for the sake of asking them.

I feel quite primitive around intuitives, because it is like they are able to create second world in their minds. So many great ideas. I hear them with admiration. I live here and now. I have INFP sister (btw she is wonderful!) and though we are both Fi -dom, S-N difference is visible. I'm not good with words or ideas. As a sensor I tune with what is around me. I do not know how to explain it but I have impression that my intuitive sister is not experiencing it as much as me. Her natural place of consciousness is mind, mine body. So when I'm experiencing things it flows first through my body, then goes to my mind.
Attempt of explanaiton how I think: I rarely think with words. I usually experience something and then I get knowledge without formulating it with words. Problem is when I have to articulate it. Then I'm searching words, and this is not natural for me. You can call it intstincts or whatever. I suck at debates. Sensor can show intelligence by bulding something, solving real existing task or giving concrete advice. Things are happening under sensor surface, but these things do not belong to world of words. I prefer to take action and use this "knowledge " in practice than formulate them with words.
I do not know whether other sensors identify with this or it is just me.