The Healing Power of The Mind

Retired NFL Hall of Famer Vince Colden was invited as a guest speaker at the Maxfield High School graduating class of 2020. Two hundred and thirty-five eager young minds asked lots of questions mainly related to sports. One female sat in the front listening to every question and answer, her eyes trained at Vince in deep thought. She furled and unfurled her brows at several of the queries and responses, always smiling.

Five minutes before his time was up, she raised her left hand in the air. Vince smiled and invites, “Yes, young lady.”

“My name is Cheyenne, and I was listening to the radio yesterday, and you were talking to Dj Firestorm on Max 106.9. You spoke about The Healing Power of The Mind.”

Vince smiled, thinking, ‘she is thinking more than her schoolmate. Very mature.’

“I didn’t get all of what you said. Could you please tell me more,” she asked.

Grinning like a schoolboy in love, Vince stepped back over thirty years into his past and said, “I have been playing football since I could walk. I loved it, and I played every day. My tactic and winning style generated a lot of attention, and I reveled in it. The better I played, the more attention I demand. And the mightier I thought I was.”

In high school, I was the brightest star on the team, and they treated me accordingly. In college, I was glorified and worshipped, and I loved it. I scored all the touchdowns for my team, and I demanded to be rewarded. I didn’t play as a team since I was the only one scoring the goals. That’s what I thought.”

“But how,” Cheyenne asked. “You weren’t the only player on the field.”

He shrugs his shoulders and said, “I made all the touchdowns. I was the Most Valuable Player every year since high school. I owned the team and the field. I thought.”

“So you believed you could play Left and Right Tackle, Guard or Receivers. Or Offensive Guard or Tackle, Running Back or Wide Receiver and all the other positions all by yourself?”

Vince’s eyes widen, and she went on, “How did you plan on doing that?”

He chuckles in awe and continues, “I didn’t think that way. I believed I was the ‘Touchdown God’. That’s what I was called by the media and everyone else.”

“But you alone couldn’t do it,” Cheyenne protests.

“I didn’t think that far. And my coach and the rest of the team allowed me to play a deity with gravy and the trimmings too.”

“You really thought you were a God?”

“I was doing what no one else had done, and my records are still unbreakable more than thirty years later. Plus I had NPD, a.k.a. Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Megalomania. In those days, they didn’t have a name for it or knew what it was.”

“I know what it is?” she quickly reveals. “And many people in the spotlight suffer from it. Mostly males though, as their high level of testosterone contributes to too much ego.”

Vince raised his brows as the audience gasp.

“How did you use your mind to heal yourself? Because little was known about this disorder, so no medication was available then.”

Calming himself as his anxiety level rose, wondering if she was just an innocent school girl asking simple questions or, is Satan back to punish him for his past deeds? Taking back control, he said, “My coach Steven Milton allowed me to play God, and my teammates resented me for robbing them of their piece of the glory pie. He had a heart attack, and one of his assistants, Jason Hayes, took over while he recovered.”

Mr. Hayes was a straightforward, no-nonsense Coach, and he said at the beginning of one of our most important game power talk of encouragement and motivation, ‘We play as a team, so if you can’t be a part of a team, go out there and face all the eleven players on the other team alone.’ Boldface and brave, I dared him.

“You really did?” she asked.

“You must be mad,” a voice said.

“Did you got any touchdowns?” an excited voice asked.

“You thought you could do it alone?” someone else throws at him.

“Yes,” Vince responds quickly, before anyone else joins in. “I was always the last player to enter the field. That day, I was the first and last. Facing the opposition alone was the first time in my life I felt afraid, and I didn’t like it. They were staring at me as if I was food, and they were hungry. My team was unbeaten and held the record for the most win. I saw revenge in their eyes as their stares tore away at my flesh.”

“Fear was not a feeling I liked or wanted to stick to me. I felt myself shrinking, and as I get smaller, everything around me expanded and raced towards me. I ran back inside the locker room, collapsing in tears.”

“That was the time the media reported you had a nervous breakdown?” she grabbed control.

Vince nods in agreement.

“But what you were really experiencing was a healing process of change and enlightenment?”

“Damn,” Vince said under his breath, turning away from the microphone. Thinking, she is a shrink in the making. How could she know so much about football for a girl?

“That experience, though traumatic for me, has changed my mindset or thinking, giving me the power to heal myself,” he rebounds quickly.

“So just by changing your way of thinking, you cure yourself of NPD?”

“The mind is powerful and can heal itself and our bodies. Plus, playing as a team, I got along better with my teammates. My football career lasts longer because I had a healthier relationship with them. My life got better because of my different mindset. I felt better too. So I end up living a better life. And from that day, I removed the word ‘I’ from my thoughts and uses ‘Us, we, them, etc. I learned that power and strength live in unity. And with unity nothing is impossible!”

She stood up and started clapping, and the rest of the audience joined in.

Our bodies, minds, and souls can heal themselves, and sometimes all it takes is a simple thing as changing your thinking for mindset.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hoped you enjoyed it.