Personality Cafe banner
Cancel
Create thread New Forums

When do you feel most "In the Moment"?

[ISTP]
Jump to Latest
2.2K views 22 replies 8 participants last post by  COcowboy  
K
#1 · (Edited)
ISTP's are labeled for being able to live in the moment. While I find this can be true, I think there's an over emphasis.

I actively engage my Ti and Ni far more than my Se and Fe which like to work in the background. When something disrupts any of my five senses, my Se snaps me to the outside world like flipping a switch - This gives me relatively accurate and fast reflexes even when I'm deep in my mind. And My Fe allows me to unconsciously feel an atmosphere. Drastic shifts in attention or mood penetrate the air life a knife and 'heavy silences' are indeed weighty. Despite being able to tap on the glass to the outside world to rapidly collect external data, I'm still consciously calculating what I see and hear and make guesses of where it could go from multiple angles.

The only time I feel truly in the moment is when watching a movie or reading a book. Without thinking I can send my Ti and Ni to the backseat and step into a character's shoes, only knowing what they know and experiencing the environment through them. I don't calculate what will happen next or detachedly put together information the character has not yet seen themselves. Only jarring editing, blatantly obvious object placement, or 4th wall comments throw me out of the moment.

Using Cabin in the Woods as an example,
 
I was just as confused as the characters about why scientists trapped them to be elaborate sacrifices; plus all the strange comments from the scientists themselves about things such as the virgin being last, their death is optional so long as they suffer. [End Spoiler]

When the credits roll or I close a book, my Ti and Ni switch automatically back to the forefront. Slowly, as if they had been unconsciously storing the information, I start connecting dots to meanings and occurrences. The answers to my questions bloom, clicking in to place one by one. For instance,
 
I realized in the way a thunderstorm rolls into the plains that the entire movie Cabin in the Woods was a cleverly disguised 4th wall break and the sacrifice dome was a sandbox film studio ready made for every type of horror movie. The old gods were our inner 'demons' and lust for the macabre, and the last lines, 'maybe it's time for change', were commenting on the horror genre as a whole. [End Spoiler] It's almost like experiencing the story twice from 2 different angles: becoming part of the inner world, then stepping back and recognizing its mechanics and structure purposes.

– Do you have a similar experience of switching functions to live in the moment?
 
C
#2 ·
I didn't read your entire post because it was too long, but I've only felt "in the moment" when I'm by myself. Doing the exact same things but with people around me doesn't make me feel "in the moment"

eg. walking around aimlessly outside and climbing up the emergency stairwells on the outside of a building to the top floor and eating lunch there
I can imagine that doing the same thing with somebody else would work a different part of my personality because I'd be thinking of different things instead of, say, "it's a pretty nice day!" or "man I could get down fast if I had a parachute."
 
  • Like
Reactions: JB Nobody, petitpèlerin and Kavik
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
K
#3 ·
ChaosEpsilon said:
I didn't read your entire post because it was too long, but I've only felt "in the moment" when I'm by myself. Doing the exact same things but with people around me doesn't make me feel "in the moment"
Click to expand...
It was mostly a long winded example of my thoughts put into images and practice while asking a second, similar question to the topic title: Do you have a switching of function focus when going into the moment? Do you go IsTp to iStP or something similar?

From the example, I could also offhandedly ask how you interact with story mediums.
 
6
#6 ·
I'm always in the moment. One moment maybe I'm reading. Or thinking. Or doing some stupid thing.
But then sometimes I feel something else. It's like dissolving into a moment, becoming one with it. When I'm dancing, I completely forget myself, or using my body in general (boxing, swimming, singing). I am pulled out of my head and into a visceral experience.
Some moments I'm in my head, others I'm in my body, and still further, sometimes I'm both at once--like I am an instinct. I'm not aware I'm thinking, but I'm deciding and doing seamlessly.

With other people, in a face to face situation, I use Se and Fe without meaning to. When I'm removed, I might mull it over, seriously sucking out all the intellectual nutrition from an experience in my mind later. And then if I sleep on it, or if I'm doing something else and the ideas are simmering in the background AHA maybe something will click into place "oh that's why so and so did xyz" or
"she's an ESFJ!" I love watching movies and tv because it gives me a lot of information I can puzzle out later, and I love picking up all of the tiny details, costumes/music/books the character had in their room, etc. Every little thing comes together for a big aha later, after credits roll. I can see the deliberate choices that were made. etc
 
K
#9 ·
cursive said:
I'm always in the moment. One moment maybe I'm reading. Or thinking. Or doing some stupid thing.
But then sometimes I feel something else. It's like dissolving into a moment, becoming one with it. When I'm dancing, I completely forget myself, or using my body in general (boxing, swimming, singing). I am pulled out of my head and into a visceral experience.
Some moments I'm in my head, others I'm in my body, and still further, sometimes I'm both at once--like I am an instinct. I'm not aware I'm thinking, but I'm deciding and doing seamlessly.
Click to expand...
Introverts are far from always in the moment. They are usually in their head and not entirely in tune with their body. My mind and body are separate entities tied by a bungee cord and never quite merge; and they frequently check on each other to make sure the other still exists and is functioning okay. My body is the vehicle my mind pilots from behind a barrier, though my body knows the information my mind wants and alerts my mind when it senses that exact info. It's kind of like my mind lives in a mecha suit.

I don't have aha moments from processes working in the background. I'll unconsciously collect and consolidate outside information which is then brought to the front of my mind for me to internally analyze, always in images.

When I say 'living in the moment', I mean being able to delay the Ti and Ni.
 
C
#7 ·
@cursive
Sounds kind of extroversion, if you ask my limited knowledge. Especially in the middle of your second paragraph
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
R
#19 ·
When do you feel most "In the Moment"?
Click to expand...
The title question cracked me up. When do you feel most "In the Moment"?

I don't feel, or I'm not aware of my feelings.

And I'm spontaneous. So I don't know when I'm "in the moment" until it happens. And then it disappears quickly. And I move on to something, or a preferable nothing, else. Until the next moment presents itself.

I don't know if this makes sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me.

But I think I understand the question. I think I'm "in the moment" whenever a crisis presents itself. Like first person on the scene at a car wreck. Then I'm floating through a surreal moment where I'm not consciously thinking, just acting and doing. And somehow, for whatever reason, people grant me a leadership role. It is only after the crisis is over that I can take the time to process what just happened.
 
C
#21 ·
The term "in the moment" probably does not have a universal understanding.

It might be what happens when you ride a bike. It could be Ayerton Senna's lap of 2 seconds better, which he described as like God was driving. It could be the pitcher throwing a no-no. It could be that "spiritual" form of art in which the artist doesn't feel s/he is making the strokes.

I suspect that it relates very closely to that concept of tacit knowledge, which is something you know how to do but can't explain to anybody else (even yourself) how you know how to do it.
 
C
#23 ·
Gauntlet, You understand it.

Its the kind of thing like learning to ride a bicycle. When you learn it, you can't understand why you didn't "get it" earlier.

Also, when you do think about doing something, then it probably doesn't come off nearly as well. I've even tried solving Sudokus this way. I surprise myself at how I know what goes where. As I practice at it my times go way down.
 
Personality Cafe
posts
11M
members
172K
Since
2008
A forum community dedicated to all ranges of personality types and people. Come join the discussion about health, behavior, care, testing, personality types, and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
INFP Forum - The Idealists INFJ Forum - The Protectors INTP Forum - The Thinkers INTJ Forum - The Scientists Myers Briggs Forum