[Ji] Purification rituals

[LadyNerdsky]

Hi Ji-types. I’m not sure if this is linked to Ji, something else, or is universal.
** potential trigger warning **
Earlier I’d been thinking about elements of Ji: alignment, purification, refinement, perfectionism. There’s a couple of things in my life recently that have set-off a deep introspection on whether my (1) thoughts, values, logic/rationale, sense of ethics and, (2) my actions, reactions, and behaviours,  are in pure alignment with each other.
Later in the day I found myself compelled to do what I guess might be classified as purification rituals. When I’m feeling internal distress (lack of alignment?) I want to soothe myself with external rituals. For example, I won’t rest until I’ve found every clogged pore on my face and body and try to empty it. I’ll pick at uneven textures in my scalp, and tweeze and pluck hairs until perfect. I’ll bite-off the tough skin on the corners of my nails.
Does anyone else do (or used to do) this or something similar, and are you high in Ji? Do you think there’s a link between Ji in distress and unhealthy coping with perfectionism/cleansing rituals?

[a.k.a.Janie]

My first thought is, you'd hate to know about the mites that live in your face. I hate knowing I probably have them, as purportedly nearly everyone does. Oh my gosh, I just grossed myself out now, and I have to stop typing. 🙁

[Alice]

I've done all sorts of stuff, especially when less mentally healthy. I would have intense negative critical inner voice stuff, and I eventually learned that cleaning my house / myself made me feel better. The emphasis here is cleansing though. I used to go really overboard, scrub the shit out of my skin, or vacuum the carpet multiple times for example.
 
Now it manifests in a healthier way, with some built in routines that give me that positive *clean* stimulus every day. My partner and I do the dishes before bed, no dishes in the sink overnight. I clean the apartment once a week. I take a good shower every other day, but not in a really obsessive way.

[Cosmo]

Yes I tend to fixate or obsess over certain things in this manner of purification/cleaning or perfecting/solving.

[Juan E. Sandoval]

Yes! ... and this was the inspiration behind this mythological story https://cognitivetype.com/the-picky-princess/. One of the symbolisms here being "picking/pecking oneself to death."
It can be psychological or, apparently, physical too-- as both are interrelated.

[Aletheia]

@LadyNerdsky - I've done exactly the same things as you describe yeah 😛 It still flairs up when I'm stressed or processing trauma but I've worked a lot to stop the skin picking thing. I get weird about dirt under my nails and the little fuzz balls on my clothes too XD
I do think this relates a lot to Ji but also to anxiety.

[Cosmo]

@Alerith Ugh yes, I hate dirty nails! I have to keep my nails short so I clip them all the time. I also pick at hairs on my face constantly, and hate having animal fur or hair or lint on my clothes. Depending on my mental state or anxiety level, I can become overly fixated on various things.

[LadyNerdsky]

@alerith @cosmo Yes, the lint thing and nails too! I'll hand-pick the little balls out of clothing if necessary. My electric lint-remover doesn't do it well enough. It's totally anxiety-linked too in my case. Whenever I feel out-of-control or threatened it will manifest. Just found myself chewing the inside of my cheeks while typing this 🙂

@auburn, Hadn't seen that story before. Thankfully, not reached the dogs eating my face stage just yet :p But definitely made things infinitely worse in trying to "fix" an impurity. That's the irony.

@alice that's a good idea about more healthy manifestations of it. I get some relief doing deep cleaning of the home or my car, or the carpet.
Very interesting, so are the Ji-types more prone to anxiety-related disorders? Is it just coincidence since anxiety is so prevalent there's bound to be overlap?

[Cosmo]

I also see fasting and exercising as a form of purification, and I tend to obsess over that stuff, more so when I was younger though .

[Alice]

@ladynerdsky - I think darker manifestations of Ji can certainly be linked to anxiety. It isn't a general anxiety though, it is an inner-directed, personal anxiety. It is an anxiety about the self, and everything linked to it, as well of an anxiety of if enough effort has been put into something.
Questions arise, like - why am I not doing anything right now? Am I as healthy as I could be? Is my living space clean enough? Is my body as clean as it could be? Am I as attractive as I could be? Etc etc. Im thinking it's usually all directed inward, while there are other anxieties that are directed outward that I think are less associated with Ji.
Anxieties like "what if I get into a car crash today" or "I feel like if I eat this food, I'll get sick" seem more predictive and less personal, so that kind of anxiety feels Pi to me.
It can get murky though, like in the case of "if I don't wash my hands right now, a plane will crash somewhere." This kind of obsessive-compulsive thought bears personal responsibility, pointing to Ji, but also a kind of predictive Pi quality. In any case, the introverted functions are probably where anxiety comes from, whether conscious or not.

[Animal]

I've lived with at least a handful of Ji leads and this is spot on. They'll end up with scabs on their body from picking off all the pimples   :,(

[GreenCoyote]

Sometimes when my clothes are dirty i will wash them...

[GreenCoyote]

also of you wash your pillowcase you are less likely to get zits and wont have to waste so much time picking them off ha ha.
come to think of it tho i actually do the same type of stuff. I have a bad habit of itching my tear ducts. Random i know. But i am always putting my fingers really really close to my eyes.

[fayest42]

I have given up trying to resist the urge to pick at my pimples and scabs. I've just accepted that it will take quite a long time for those things to heal because whenever I have them, I pick at them every day. Probably not the healthiest approach to take, but I think it's been better for me than constantly trying and failing to resist and then feeling bad about failing.

[a.k.a.Janie]

I have given up trying to resist the urge to pick at my pimples and scabs. I’ve just accepted that it will take quite a long time for those things to heal because whenever I have them, I pick at them every day. Probably not the healthiest approach to take, but I think it’s been better for me than constantly trying and failing to resist and then feeling bad about failing.

 
I have this with my cuticle areas. When I went on a certain anti-inflammatory diet, the compulsion stopped as if by magic. Started again though shortly after going back off of it. I don't know what the causal relationship is, or if it will work that way for anyone else (Ji or other), but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Author]

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