Mind Over Sports

We’re all familiar with how athletes are able to enhance their performance by visualizing themselves being successful, but the visualization process can also be used in a negative way by kooks in our society who are angry and feel they are victims of society. They are often walking time bombs who have come from dysfunctional families and have a low sense of self-worth because they received very little, if any, love and nurturing in their lives. I believe such was the case in Charleston, S.C. when a white gunman walked into a church and murdered nine innocent people. One has to wonder if he had watched violence on television which then became the trigger for his actions. It may not be so for psychologically healthy people, but for that small segment of our society who carry around with them massive amounts of anger, it could very well be the source. These people subconsciously visualize the violence they see on national television and then go out and reproduce a violent scenario in real life with real people. The only way to avoid this is to intervene in their lives at a very early age when they are children by creating support groups in our public school systems that will allow them to talk about what is happening in their homes that no one knows about and which they are keeping bottled up inside themselves. Once a program like this is set up in our school systems across the country, you will see fewer and fewer Charleston S.C. scenarios.