Truity's Personality and Careers Blog

For many Introverts, this unusual time of lockdowns and social distancing has been business as usual. After all, staying home and spending lots of time alone is the Introvert’s comfort zone. But INFJs are also struggling right now. The lack of face-to-face interaction, racial injustices, and all this strange uncertainty has left many INFJs feeling disconnected, dissatisfied and disheartened. 

Are you an INFJ who’s lost your mojo? Read on to find out why you’re feeling so down in the dumps and how you can get your groove back.

What does an INFJ without mojo look like?

When you have your mojo, you feel like you can do anything. Your outlook is positive and optimistic and you’re full of energy, confidence and self-motivation. Just let anyone try to stop you! 

But when you lose your mojo, that enthusiasm disappears and you begin to question whether you have the talent, the drive or the will to keep going. This often happens after a disappointment, such as losing your job, failing an exam or breaking up with a partner. But it can also happen during strange events that are outside your control, such as lockdown time.

For INFJs, this means your creativity stops flowing, your ideas dry up, and you begin to question your purpose in life. You fear that you’ll never write, paint or play music again. You lose your sense of connection to others so you feel isolated and lonely. Some INFJs retreat further into their own introverted world and hardly see or speak to anyone, while others try harder to connect by acting like Extraverts and spending so much time on phone calls and video chats they become burned out. 

Whether you’re living alone or in a house full of family, these strange times can leave INFJs feeling stressed, depressed, exhausted and anxious that they should be doing more to help.

Why INFJs lose their mojo

There are several reasons why INFJs can lose their mojo:

1.       Introverted Intuition 

This is the dominant function of INFJs and it means we are focused on the internal world of thoughts and ideas. This is what drives our creativity and our passion. 

But when the external world constantly demands our attention with reports of the pandemic, business closures, job losses and racial violence, it’s hard to find the mental space to think of anything else. We find ourselves being dragged into the real world of practicalities while our inner world of possibilities seems a distant memory and we wonder why we feel that something is missing. 

We can also feel bored, even when we’re busy with other tasks and responsibilities. INFJs need a lot of positive mental stimulation and without it, we can feel listless, depressed, and have difficulty sleeping, which makes it even harder to think.

2.       Extraverted Feeling

Despite being Introverts who recharge their energy by spending time on their own, INFJs need connection. This secondary INFJ function makes us deeply aware of and concerned about the energy, moods and feelings of others. It makes us empathic and compassionate, and driven to feel useful, supportive and encouraging. So, worries about family and friends and the lack of connection with colleagues can cause us stress, especially when we’re unable to help. 

We also feel the negative energy of others, such as partisan agitators, selfish hoarders and thoughtless socialisers. All of this can lead us to feel anxious, exhausted or depressed. Studies show that people who are highly empathetic and care about other people, like INFJs, are more likely to feel anxiety than those who are less concerned. 

And social isolation can also make us feel lonely, as we struggle to find a real connection with people who understand us. Social isolation and loneliness can have adverse effects on your health.

3.       Extraverted Sensing

Another extraverted function of the INFJ is Extraverted Sensing, which makes us aware of the sights, sounds, smells, touch and tastes around us, as well as the energy of other people. This receptive awareness of our environment creates in INFJs a “highly sensitive person” who absorbs sensory information and processes it deeply, often subconsciously. 

During these difficult times, we can feel overwhelmed by negative experiences, even when we see them on television. We can also feel a “sensory overload” by spending too much time on video calls, absorbing too many details with too many people, and not getting enough time in positive experiences, like spending time in nature.

When you put these elements together, you have sensitive, compassionate, creative individuals who need to feel connected to others and help people to give their lives meaning. So how can we get our mojo back as INFJs when we’re faced with social distancing, lockdowns and global unrest? Let’s explore a few tips to get you back on track.

How to get your mojo back

Fill the well. As Intuitive Introverts, INFJs need a steady supply of information to fill their creative well, but that can be hard to find when you’re stuck at home all the time. Your creative ideas can start to run dry. During periods of isolation, you need to find new ways to stimulate your brain, like watching documentaries, listening to concerts online or reading about new ideas.

Get enough rest. Creativity takes a lot of energy, whether you’re writing a novel or dreaming up a new business plan, so make bedtime a priority. Being tired can also make you feel depressed,  hopeless or frustrated, especially when you try to force yourself to be creative. Take a break, step away from your desk and go for a walk or read something inspiring.

Don’t watch the news!  Psychologist Elaine Aron, who coined the term “highly sensitive person” says she doesn’t watch the news because it’s too depressing and scary. It can be hard to step away from the media when you’re anxious to know what’s happening, but INFJs can easily find it to be an assault on the senses. Give your sensitive side a break and read the news instead or get a friend to keep you up to date with the things you need to know. This way, you can use technology to connect with the people who matter to you.

Connect with nature. Whether you’re walking in the woods or swimming in the sea, a natural environment gives your brain a chance to relax, which is key for sensitive, intuitive INFJs who are constantly absorbing information from the world around them. Spending time in nature also gives you a healthy outlet for your Extraverted Sensing function, allowing you to enjoy positive sensory experiences, like the sound of birdsong, the colours of wildflowers or a gentle coastal breeze.

Exercise. Pounding the pavement may be the last thing you want to do when you’ve lost your mojo, but studies show that exercise actually gives you energy. It also improves your mood and helps you sleep better. According to a study in the journal Neuropsychobiology, exercise may also reduce symptoms of depression. Start small, with just a walk in the park, and increase the length of time as you improve. It’s also important to stay motivated by doing what you enjoy, whether it’s walking, playing tennis, gardening, cycling or yoga.

Listen to music. INFJs love the arts, so spend some of your lockdown time listening to your favourite tunes to get your groove back. I particularly like movie soundtracks because they’re so emotionally evocative and seem to feed my subconscious mind while helping me to forget about day-to-day worries.

Stop self-criticising. INFJs can be very hard on themselves. They criticise their own work telling themselves it’s garbage and wondering why they bother. They can be perfectionists who demand a lot of themselves, questioning their own behaviour and what they’re doing to the point they do nothing. Remember to have some fun and stop beating yourself up for not being perfect. For INFJs, fun often means doing things like reading, writing, walking, spending time with animals, gardening or getting some much needed alone time.

Help others. INFJs need to feel they’re making a difference, which is why you can feel like you’ve lost your mojo if things have become a little too quiet. The best way to feel truly fulfilled is to help other people by doing what you do best, so use your Introverted Intuition and Extraverted Feeling functions to express your ideas and insights in a way that will benefit others. Write a story, paint a picture, design a tool, or bake a cake. It’s not what you do that matters, but doing what you love so you can build that connection to other people.

Make a list. Do you know what’s important to you? Make a list of what you would do if you had your mojo. What will it enable you to do? Maybe you’d like to spend time taking photos of trees or drawing cats or writing poems about racial injustice. Look at your list every day, crossing off some things and adding others as you become more focused on what you want to do. When you think about what’s important to you every day, you gain a sense of purpose and clarity and begin to recognise that you should be spending time doing the things you love without judgment from anyone, including yourself.

The last word

Many INFJs have found that not much has changed in these strange times of lockdowns and distancing. As Introverts, we’ve always enjoyed spending time at home, and doing our own thing without too much socialising. 

But these unusual times have also created some challenges for INFJs, from worrying about how to help, feeling distraught over the news to wondering how we’ll ever get our mojo back. Still,  INFJs are more than just sensitive souls. We have superpowers, like intuition, compassion, creativity and empathy that can help see us through these difficult days and learn to live the life we’ve imagined.