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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
"The magic of the electronic village is transforming health information. The mouse and keyboard have extended the stethoscope to the 500 million people now online." - Dr. Edward Creagan
The power of the medium inspires Dr. Edward Creagan as he searches for ways to share Mayo Clinic's vast resources with the general public.
Dr. Creagan, a Newark, N.J., native, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice medicine and palliative care. He has been with Mayo Clinic since 1973 and in 1999 was president of the staff of Mayo Clinic. Dr. Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was honored in 1995 with the John and Roma Rouse Professor of Humanism in Medicine Award and in 1992 with the Distinguished Mayo Clinician Award, Mayo's highest recognition. He has been recognized with the American Cancer Society Professorship of Clinical Oncology.
He describes his areas of special interest as "wellness as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-financial model" and fitness, mind-body connection, aging and burnout.
Dr. Creagan has been an associate medical editor with Mayo Clinic's Web sites and has edited publications and CD-ROMs and reviewed articles.
"We the team of (the Web site) provide reliable, easy-to-understand health and wellness information so that each of us can have productive, meaningful lives," he says.
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Stress blog
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April 21, 2009
Create a no-stress zone
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Every once in a while, each of us has a sense of total peace and contentment — being "in the zone." This happened to me this morning. Let me explain.
As is my routine, I got up when my alarm rang at 4:50 a.m. I grabbed my weather-appropriate clothes for running, which I keep close at hand. (If I have to spend time looking for them, I will never get out the door.) The morning was overcast with a hazy mist.
The only sound I heard was my breathing. No horns, no whistles, no people, no dogs and, equally importantly, no cell phones or PDAs. It was one of those magical moments that we all experience when we are enveloped by a sense of peace and the feeling that, yes, we can achieve an inner happiness.
I deliberately did not drift off into the challenges of the day. The deadlines, the challenging clinical cases, the endless stream of e-mails and phone calls — all the intrusions on our peace, serenity and sense of well being.
The lesson for me has been well-articulated by great thinkers and writers and many of you in the blog community. The answer is really pretty simple: We need time alone, time to think and time away from the distractions of the boardroom, the classroom, the control center. We need time to simply "be."
Am I being clear on this or perhaps in the midst of some minor hallucination? Please speak up. We need each other.
5 comments posted
April 29, 2009 12:36 p.m.
Hi Alfonso: Thx for insightful comments.4:50 am is the time we get up. Need in general 7 solid hours of sleep/nite. So by 9 pm or so we have the IQ of a zucchini. But without the solitude of the road for training , we cannot be at our best...stay well, Dr. Ed
- Dr. Ed
April 23, 2009 5:22 p.m.
4:30 in the morning. I´m stressed just to think of it. How many hours do you sleep? Anyway, you are right that´s the best moment of the day - when nothing disturb your existence just you and your soul, no stress at all at that moment. To keep this moment is unrealistic. In our "modern" lifes live without stress is like a life without water, impossible. "Be", the great challenge.
- Alfonso
April 21, 2009 9:59 p.m.
This is very true. I was skeptical at first, but I have tried this and it truly works.
- Ben C
April 21, 2009 7:55 p.m.
On Sunday in the New York Times, Verlyn Klinkenborg writes a column on the editorial page called "The Rural Life." This week it was entitled "Perfectly Still." He describes an early evening walk when, despite the noise of the world, "this small-valley quiet comes to be." In this "calm" he thinks about all the things around him that are happening that are related to spring and the place in which he is walking. As I read his article I was with him and then drifted off to my own memories of calming experiences. We all have memories of those moments. We need to take the time to recall them and "BE" quiet.
- Barbara M
April 21, 2009 11:53 a.m.
You are correct, we need space to just "be" - a comment I heard was that we are human BEINGS not human DOINGS. BEING time can be difficult to achieve, not only from outside demands and pressures but also our own need to be busy and feel worthwhile because we accomplished something. Sometimes we fill our lives with doing something as a way to hide from those thoughts that might come if we were still and quiet. An "inner life" is not such a scary thing! It truly is what helps us keep our sanity.
- Susan
5 comments posted