# How to use Extroverted Sensing from an ISTP's point of view.



## DJArendee

Dear fellow ISTPs,

I figured I'd write this to you all because many of the issues ya'll seem to have are solvable once you understand some things about yourself. This is a blog of mine, let me know what you think, if you disagree or have anything to add.

Extroverted sensing, its one of the most important functions you'll ever use.

What is extroverted sensing (Se)? 

Are you a floor or a wall talker? Its probably because when you look into someone's eyes, you start thinking about what their eyes look like and lose track of the conversation, or you can SENSE them attempting to make a connection of some sort with you. 

Ever notice how many ISTP's eyelids seem to look really lazy? Its because when we open them really wide like an ENXP does on a daily basis, we can feel our eyes getting dry and uncomfortable while they can't.

Pause for a moment, look around your room. Look at all the furniture and architecture. Don't think about what it means, just briefly scan it in a shallow manner. Allow the sights to hit your retina, then move onto the next. Dart your eyes around the room. Do you notice anything different now about your room that you didn't before? If not, try doing this outside. Dart your eyes around quickly, and listen to the random conclusions and epiphanies that spontaneously appear in your head as you look around. This is how you use your extroverted sensing to pull in tons of information and use your Introverted Intuition (Ni) to spontaneously generate a conclusion. The more facts you draw in, the most powerful a conclusion your Ni will generate. The more you practice this, the stronger your Ni will become.

As you look at objects, feel them in your mind. Imagine your hand stroking the surface of whatever object you're imagining. What does it feel like? What does it smell like? What are its physical properties of strength? This is also Extroverted Sensing. Would you believe that some personalities cannot physically do this?

Do you have a trash can or laundry basket in your room? Take a minute to face away from the trashcan. Now imagine in your mental map of the room where the trash can is. Feel it. Feel the contour of the rim, the depth of the basket. Feel the material. But most importantly feel its location relative to yourself. Now grab something and throw it into the basket with your back turned to it. How close did you get? The more you focus on the basket, the closer you should arrive on target. When playing sports, this magnificent ability is magnified the harder and faster you can focus on things around you.

Feel the rock. Become the rock. That is Extroverted Sensing.

Now use this powerful sensory ability on yourself. Feel everything going on inside of your body. Feel the temperature of your brain, your heart, your stomach, your hands, your thighs. Feel every ache and pain. Scan your body with a magnifying glass for pain or irritation.

Now go inside yourself and sense your emotions. The best I can describe them is an aura, or a temperature from which you radiate out of yourself. Is it good? Is it bad? Observe the people around you. What aura do they radiate? What temperature, what emotion do they radiate. Stare at the person in the corner of the room who is perfectly silent. What temperature do they radiate? Don't be afraid to judge, allow your Ni to make stuff up, really listen to it. What is going on in their mind?

Live in the moment. Are you in a new relationship? Do you constantly find yourself thinking about things that HAVEN'T HAPPENED and are completely in your mind? Pay attention only to what is in front of you. Do you hate someone's guts for no reason? Give them a chance, keep talking to them and enjoy the moment for what it is, and realize that your Ni is often times very paranoid about the future. Often times you'll find the current moment is a lot more enjoyable than your Ni is allowing it to be because its too busy thinking about the past and the future.

Eventually this skill of observation will become so incredibly powerful and second nature to you, that you will be able to nearly read the minds of people around you. Are they lying? What does your gut say? Does she like you? What does your personal aura, or her personal aura say? Its a sixth sense. Its more than colors, shapes, smells, tastes, and sounds, its temperature, warmth, vibes, and chi. Get in touch with these things, observe them in the people around you and you'll be amazed at how well your weaknesses will begin to flourish.

An ISTP with highly developed Extroverted Sensing aimed at their own thought process and intuitions will be able to do the following things they ordinarily wouldn't think about:
-Pick up on emotions of those around them
-pick up their own emotions quicker, or catch themselves in a bad mood before it rubs off onto others.
-most nearly read the mind of the other person they're talking to
-arrive at deadly accurate conclusions and motivations of other people
-formulate sentences with exactly the right words at exactly the right time.
-dominate sports.


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## pinkrasputin

*RUNS AWAY IN FEAR*

(But thank you)


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## ItsAlwaysSunny

Again, very helpful.


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## Navis Amoris

I liked this article a lot. The examples provide a good way to get 'the feel' of Se, which makes it easier for me to shift to that function. I've noticed that developing Se has brought a development of kinesthetic intelligence with it. This has been very useful in accomplishing a function shift from the opposite function. To actually feel an energy shift taking place and arriving at a different mindset.


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## dogwoodlover

Many of these "attributes" I had always heard termed as "Intuitive" properties (granted, I spent the majority of my early days learning about Jung and MBTI on INTJf, where _Intuition is God_).

This article was extremely informative, because since typing myself as ISTP (rather than INTJ) I've often found my capacity to absorb "vibes" from people as seeming to fly in the face of the suggestions of the "Intuitive tyrants" who would claim that any reading that transcends "the surface" is the domain of Intuition.

If getting "vibes" and "arriv[ing] at deadly accurate conclusions and motivations of other people" is a property of Se, then it is undoubtedly my auxiliary function.


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## Tenshi_rdk

OK really ? I have always been doing this but never knew what external sensing really meant until now. I have also thought that I could be an ISFP because I would sort of feel/see that people felt sad/angry etc. but now I know why. Also what a coincidence, my best intelligence is kinesthetic. Lol ok so I know how other people feel kind of , but now to let them know how I feel...


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## Raichu

This makes so much sense...


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## ThunderQuine

Please, how can I bookmark this? I'd like to read it to my boyfriend tonight.


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## The Wanderering ______

Thank you. It seems the definitive form of extraverted sensing or the way it is commonly portrayed is being good at sports and I don't think that is the case extraverted sensing might seems shallow from an outside perspective, but is a lot more detailed than it gets credit for. Since I've started mbti I have had a hard time typing myself as an sp because I don't commonly use my extraverted sensing play sports, I mostly use it to to run or excersise because of that I thought for sure I was an INTJ, but after reading this ( and the multiple tests results that I have always questioned when taking the Keys2cognition test that pointed towards me being ISTP or INFJ) I think I could definitely be an ISTP. That would explain why I feel the need to run around my house and then go outside several times a day as well as when I start playing with my imagination I need to run around in order to enjoy it.


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