Athlete Mental Health Lessons Inspired By Johnny Cash

It was the first day of 2022, and as I often do, I took some time to reflect. This inspiration on this day was courtesy of a Johnny Cash documentary that I was watching, which detailed his battle with addiction. Even after he had “seen the light” and given his life to God, he still faltered in his battle with substance abuse and infidelity.

What does this have to do with the mental health of athletes, high-profile individuals, and us regular folks? Stay with me.

Part 1: Being an athlete is a spiritually unique challenge

As the documentary unfolded, I found myself thinking about how Johnny—like so many people in high-profile positions—was in the public eye during his lifetime because being famous was an important factor in the unique trials, and therefore lessons, that his soul had to conquer.

You see, I am of the belief that we are all souls and we come into our lifetime here on earth with lessons to learn. Essentially, we come here to learn and graduate in the school of spiritual evolution. Nothing more, nothing less.

So when it comes to those in high-profile positions, think about it: You’re surrounded by people and resources with loads of enablers and temptation, however, in the midst of all that, you still have to learn your lessons, which I think requires incredible discipline. Money can’t buy your soul’s learning.

Part 2: We all have negative habits or addictions to conquer.

As my mind continued to trail off like a pull-back toy car—once it goes, it goes—I then thought about my own vices. I don’t have a need to drink or do drugs. I have a pretty healthy relationship with food. But if I had to single out a vice – the one thing that I battle with the most – I’d say it’s an anxious mindset and overthinking. I do my best to manage it and most days I do well, but there are times I go down the rabbit hole and I feel absolutely terrible. There are many reasons I go there mentally – protection being one of them – and in the moment I feel like I’m satisfying a need but in the big picture, I wind up feeling terrible with an emotional and physical hangover.

So, as I reflected on this, I thought about how those thought habits are my vice. I think there’s something to be said for looking at mental health struggles and mindset as its own form of a so-to-speak addiction/imbalance/habit. And we all struggle with this in our own ways by craving whatever it is we think will make us feel better whether it’s food, drugs, alcohol, sex, overthinking, or the like. There’s a finesse to rehabbing your mindset with a plethora of tools, resources, and programming.

Part 3: Remove ego and labels to graduate your soul with honors

Here’s where I’m going to bring all this together: We all struggle and we are also all on a unique path paved with challenges designed for our specific soul to learn lessons in order to spiritually advance. Maybe you need to learn patience. Maybe you need to learn faith. Maybe you need to learn trust. Maybe you need to learn discipline. Maybe you need to learn to respect yourself and others. There are endless possibilities.

Keys to the Game:

If you’re facing adversity, there’s nothing wrong with you and you didn’t do anything to deserve going through a hard time or struggling. There may be, however, a greater purpose. When facing challenges, especially those that seem to be repetitive, get curious. There may be a spiritual way of approaching the situation.

• What does your soul need from this situation?
• What does your soul need to learn in this lifetime? Hint: if you’re facing the same obstacles over and over, there’s something you probably have to not just learn, but master.
• Your body will get older with physical limitations, which you can’t change. But, spiritually, you can always grow.