So you may have read my INFP archetype articles and even taken my INFP Archetypes test, but you may still be left wondering, how can I use this knowledge to make an impact in my daily life?
Making use of archetypes in daily life can be challenging because it involves more than simply knowing which archetypes are active in your life right now. The head knowledge alone isn’t quite enough to make it practical.
This is why archetype work often involves getting to know each archetype intimately. There’s learning to understand their motivations, desires, and challenges. But even more important is understanding in what ways that specific archetype is a part of YOU. With this in mind, that’s why I decided to create the INFP Archetype Connection Workshop
For example, the Lover archetype can look totally different in another person than it does in yourself. This is because everyone’s way of expressing that archetype is a little different, just like how everyone has a different voice.
I like to view my archetypes as characters that live within me, and they play different roles in the story that is my life. I can access them and examine them anytime I want. With them being in a story that is uniquely mine, the way they show up is colored by my experience.
So it’s important to ask, how are these archetypes showing up in the story that is my life? What are they doing, and what can I learn from them?
Allowing your archetypes to influence your life involves being curious about them and engaging with them as characters within you.
Like if the Warrior archetype is active for you right now, and you really want to work with that, it’s not only important to ask what are the qualities of the Warrior archetype, but also which of those qualities you identify with the most. Then to bring its influence on your inner world to your external life, it’s necessary to consider how this version of the archetype within you solves problems and faces challenges.
Another barrier that can make it hard to bring the lessons of a specific archetype into your life is the emotional charge you may feel towards it. In the world of archetype work, it’s common for some archetypes to be labeled with a big, huge “avoid at all costs!” label. This is especially true for the Victim and Shadow Martyr archetypes.
Then there may be specific archetypes that are active in your life that you feel a deep aversion to.
“The Child? The Innocent? The Wanderer? I don’t want to be that!”
Regardless of how you feel emotionally about your archetypes, at the end of the day, they’re simply messengers. Just like how negative emotions are messengers that tell you what needs to be addressed in your life, archetypes that bring up negative feelings often have the strongest messages for you. They are a natural part of your life experience.
When you build a relationship with the archetypes within you, you can better get a grasp of their inner needs which in turn, connects you to your own needs and desires. From building relationships with my archetypes, I’ve enjoyed seeing how they work together to support each other.
Like right now, I have the Hero Power archetype active, and I have the Child, Explorer and Visionary as my active Purpose archetypes. The qualities of my Purpose archetypes work together to support my Hero archetype.
My Purpose archetypes bring the gifts of imagination, curiosity, exploration, play, and vision to the efforts of my hardworking, dragon battling Hero archetype. If you have the Victim or Martyr archetypes, qualities of your Growth, Power, and Purpose archetypes can play a major role in pulling you out of helplessness and bitterness.
Through building relationships with your archetypes, you get a better picture of how these unique and fascinating interactions are working within you. However, building relationships with your archetypes can be this strange and unfamiliar process if you’ve never done it before. Just like with in-person relationships, understanding your archetypes deeply involves engaging with them in conversation.
You have to take the time to meet with these inner parts of yourself by asking them questions and being open to the responses you receive. When you’re first starting out with this kind of practice, it can be hard knowing exactly what kinds of questions to ask or how to facilitate that kind of interaction.
The key is not to overthink it. Pull out a journal, ask a specific archetype about themselves, and see what comes back.