- With Mayo Clinic oncologist
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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Aug. 16, 2008
How can we put aside life's frustrations and move forward?
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Several years ago, a glamorous college football player was drafted by a professional team that had done very poorly over many years. The young athlete had the "golden arm," movie star looks, and a magnificent personality — and had broken every conceivable passing record. He had a label that said "cannot miss." However, his first three seasons as a professional athlete were a bitter disappointment. At one point, the professional scouts and front office really wondered how they could have made such a mistake.
With careful analysis of his dismal performance, it became very clear what had happened.
The athlete frankly admitted that he had lost his focus. He had become distracted, and his energy and vitality on the athletic field were siphoned off and diluted by personal issues. These included the following:
- A failed personal relationship
- Contingency lawsuits
- Failed business relationships involving poor legal advice
An important lesson that our athlete lost and a lesson that is important for each of us is the ability to put distractions, setbacks and disappointments into a "compartment." A compartment could be viewed as a psychological box, as a mental container into which we put our disappointments, our frustrations, our setbacks. At the end of the day, we deal with these issues as best we can but then we wrap up the box and put it on the shelf and get on with the rest of our lives. If we ruminate over these activities, if we stew over them, they will burn a hole in our stomach, burn a hole in our souls, and we are poorly equipped then to deal with the challenges of life.
I have often asked longtime cancer survivors how they have dealt with their illness and almost without exception they have the gift to recognize that they are not their cancer, they are not their diagnosis, but somehow can put their illness and their disappointments into a box, into a container, and move on with life as best they can.
Does this philosophy make any sense? Can those of us in the blog community relate and expand on this notion of putting life's disappointments and frustrations into a box, into a compartment?
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