While I get where the answers that “if you’re really an INFJ it should happen naturally” are coming from, I have to disagree if the case is that you struggle with long-term anxiety.
When we experience stressful situations that tends to be when we have to learn to use our lower functions; it illustrates how difficult situations help us grow and learn to be more matured, well-rounded individuals.
However, when someone is depressed or anxious people will often say they are “not themselves”. They may stop doing what actually would be most natural to them and get “stuck” in their lower functions.
Basically, if you’re down in the dumps your top function can feel out of reach.
If you do struggle with anxiety then I’d say best way is to
- work on reducing/managing anxiety, and 2. be patient with yourself .
As everyone else already has said you can’t force it, but working towards Ni-conducive environments can help. These are no magical Ni-boosters but it could help to hang out with an INTJ or ENFJ friend, write concise journal entries, or rekindle old interests or find a new one and let yourself be absorbed in it.
And one more, probably the most important: Try not to think about it too much.
Don’t label your actions as S or N. Go with your gut. As everyone else has already mentioned over-thinking (as INFJs are often prone to) is not going to help. And if thinking about anxiety makes you more anxious then maybe commiserating with Beth Evans’ comics on occasion might help make light of otherwise bitter coffee breaks.
Posted to lunar-winds on April 28, 2018, originally answered on Quora Sep 12, 2017
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