With Mayo Clinic oncologist Edward T. Creagan, M.D.

As part of our blog community, I need some help, insight, and perspective. I am supposed to know all about relieving stress, but a recent circumstance really threw me a curveball. Let me explain.

While on a business trip, I met a colleague whom I have not seen for many years. We had many professional ties together, and as often happens, we went in different directions. There was the occasional birthday card, a Christmas greeting, but very little contact. Then, over a cup of coffee, he really challenged me in some of our writings on stress.

He had read, as many of us have read, about the importance of staying in the moment; total engagement in the task at hand being absorbed into the "now" of life. Sacred writings for many Eastern traditions proposed that that philosophy would promote peace, serenity, and healing since we would not be distracted by the past or the future.

Now for the hard part: our friend who is a prominent professional was preparing for his daughter's wedding. A joyful occasion. However, looming on the horizon were some serious financial crises. He shared with me that each time that he focused on the joy and the planning of the wedding the legal and financial hammer came right down between his eyes. So, here was his challenge: "How am I supposed to focus on the beauty and the joy of the wedding when right around the corner are the CPAs and the attorneys just ready to wipe out my life's work?"

I really had no easy answer. I explained to him the real merits of a good night's sleep, a spiritual dimension, and securing our health, but I really was not at peace trying to comfort him during this difficult time.

He knew what to do, he knew all the right responses, yet the joy of the moment, the peace and serenity of the "now" was torn apart by these legal and financial issues.

So, let me reach out to you with a sense of quiet desperation and unease. What would any of us have offered our friend, who is trying to do the right thing, who had all the right tools, but was overwhelmed by the angst and suffering of the future rather than enjoying the peace of the present?

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