Even before reading about Breather I had been thinking about the state of the world and how people tend to hide away in their homes. The average American spends something like 34 hours a week watching tv in the safety of their home. Human lives today are controlled by fear, fear of death and health issues. Fear of being alone or growing old, fear of the unknown, crime, war, drugs, not being high enough in the social ladder, rejection etc. Home is a relaxing environment that we can control, something that is based on our own terms. In todays society everything is very intense and moving at a fast pace, where sensory novelty, consumerism and materialism is praised higher then spirituality and peace of mind. Indigenous tribes in parts of the world for example does not need this the same way that we do. A home becomes a shield from our stressful environment where we can recharge.

The irony in this whole concept though is that you could say that it is all based on the premise of fear, we lock ourselves out from the environment which we are in turn feeding and creating ourselves. We value this type of living even though it causes us harm in the end. Since 1991 there has been an 500% increase in the amount of prescriptions written for ADHD. Something that was not a big problem before the era of television and computers. Today children grow up in an environment where they can play games on computers, watching reality tv, eat junk food and where  porn is widely available on the internet. Most of these things are shortcuts in life that will give you pleasure. However,  the problem lies in the fact that they exploit our natural systems in our brains in a way that in the long term will cause more negative effects then positives. We might gain pleasure but it’s a bit like one step forward two steps back. When you don’t count medicine and higher living standards, I think people was happier before the twentieth century.

When you put this in perspective like the concept of Breather has done, private space will be even more important in the future since our consumerism and high speed living shows no signs of slowing down. Instead we are making it all worse for ourselves and especially introverts will suffer from this.

I read some interesting articles about the evolution of cancer the other day. Way back before industrialism, pollution and fast food, cancer and tumors was not a very common cause of death. Comparing today to 1900 the statistics for cancer has almost tripled, and the cause of this is obviously our way of living. Yet we continue to evolve this way and you have to ask yourself the question if this is simply the curse of mankind, maybe we are really to smart for our own good.

Breather – Peace & quiet, on-demand

I always wondered if the negative aspects of me as a person was something every INFJ suffered or if it was strictly me and something my life has shaped me into. This is a question that has been haunting me for some time since I would  like to find comfort in being an INFJ and that it would explain a lot of it.

Anyhow, I had a great time at this meeting. The most amazing part was the instant chemistry that we all had as a group (7 people). It seems like we got a long straight from the start and had such interesting talks about deep things and MBTI. What strike me the most is that one of the INFJ guys was really similar to me in interests and life experience, he was even originating from the same country as me. Similar humor, taste in music/film, both artists working in almost the same field. Using similar body language and expressions. Quite amazing. We seemed to have a lot in common and sadly enough this person told me he also suffered a bad childhood.

I realized at this meeting that there is other kinds of INFJs that are not very similar to me. Maybe they are not an INFJ but who knows. My intuition tells me that MBTI is mostly a type of tool that tries to describe and predict something that is way more complex then simple cognitive functions. We all use different cognitive processes but in the end there is so much more complex systems in action that make you who you are and how your personality is. MBTI only scratches the surface so to speak. I would like to say that the biggest thing we INFJs share amongst each other is that we have the same moral and value systems in action. Which is why we don’t fit that well in society and might struggle in our lives. We value concepts that simply do not exist easily in the world the way we imagine them. For example the concept of a perfect world where we are all treated equally and live in harmony. This is not the basis of which humans are created from. We are alienated among others because we see things in another light, we see them for what they really are, and we act upon this. But honestly, who would like it any other way?