Meet Cullen Murray-Kemp, Publisher
Cullen Murray-Kemp has a vision to help educate communities on local, pertinent healthcare topics and feels his job is to influence folks to think proactively rather than reactively about their health because in Cullen’s words, “when patients take their health into their hands this allows for healthier, happier, and more productive lives.”
Cullen started HealthLinks in hopes of simply providing a medium where local healthcare providers could speak directly to community members who need health and medical resources local to them.
Before starting HealthLinks, Cullen had a successful college basketball career and focused on journalism while in school. After college, Cullen moved from Maryland to Charleston to write about lifestyle and athletic happenings in the area. Cullen’s articles have been featured in both The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
More recently, Cullen and the HealthLinks team have launched into the digital world to “meet people where they are with local health information,” by launching HealthLinks Podcast, HealthLinks Newsletter and a new website in 2023.
As Cullen puts it, “our health is the most valuable thing that we have and having simple access to quality, unbiased health information is vital to being productive and positive people!”
Cullen’s Recent Publisher’s Notes
Cullen’s Pub Note January/February 2026
I still remember the moment I truly understood that HealthLinks was more than just a publication.
Back then, it was only a special section inside another community publication – one of many. I’d just walked out of a local acute care hospital after meeting with its team about an ad. They said, “We want to advertise in the magazine, but what we really want is HealthLinks.”
That stopped me.
Driving away, I called my wife, who was heading to North Carolina for a patient’s funeral. For some reason, that detail stayed with me – someone crossing county and community lines because the right health care mattered that much.
It made me think about how often people do that. We travel, we research, we ask around. Because finding the right care isn’t simple.
And somewhere on that drive back to the office, it clicked: HealthLinks could help make it simpler. We could be the connector – the conduit – between those who understand health care and those looking to navigate it. More than a decade later, that mission feels more alive than ever.
This January marks our 12-year anniversary of publishing – a full dozen years of serving as the communicative liaison between South Carolina’s medical community and its residents. And this year, we’re expanding that mission statewide.
In 2026, HealthLinks will bring what we built in Charleston to Greenville, Columbia and the Grand Strand, with a larger press run and full distribution across the state. It’s both humbling and exciting to think that the conversations that began right here – about access, prevention and community well-being – are now becoming part of an even bigger story.
Our role has always been to offer clarity in a noisy world. You can find endless medical content online, from AI-generated articles to major national outlets, but there’s something uniquely valuable about learning from your local experts. When you read HealthLinks, you’re hearing directly from the physicians and practitioners in your own community – the same people you can call, visit and trust.
That’s why our team takes this work so seriously. We fact-check every article with medical providers, and we’re proud to be a platform that’s both credible and accessible. Our commitment to local health literacy hasn’t changed; it’s simply grown stronger with each issue, each partnership and each reader who takes the time to pick up the magazine.
And if you’ve ever wanted to go deeper than the page, The HealthLinks Podcast is now doing just that: more than 100 episodes hosted by a clinician who makes complex topics approachable and real. Every two weeks, we bring new conversations with local physicians who help us better understand what matters most to our health and our lives.
There have been so many highs and lows along this journey, but gratitude is what anchors me. Gratitude for you, the readers, as well as the doctors, the partners and the team who’ve trusted us to grow, learn and expand together.
Here’s to a new year, a new reach and a renewed commitment to connecting South Carolinians with the care and information they deserve.
Cullen’s Pub Note November/December 2025
The Art of Reinvention
I’ve always loved a good makeover story. Not the kind where you swap your glasses for contacts and suddenly your life changes, but the kind where something familiar gets stripped down and built back better.
Lately, that story has felt personal.
When we decided to reimagine the look of HealthLinks Magazine, I invited in an old friend, HealthLinks Creative Director Dana Coleman, whose creativity I’ve admired for years. Having worked with Dana on my own wedding nearly a decade ago, I knew he understood how to capture emotion in color, space and detail. What I didn’t expect was how much this creative process would mirror a reinvention I’ve already been navigating – the one that began when my dad passed.
Reinvention sounds exciting until you’re knee-deep in it. It asks you to let go of what’s comfortable – the habits, the templates, the “we’ve always done it this way.” It asks you to question what still fits and what doesn’t. That’s not easy for anyone and definitely not for someone who has built a career out of consistency. But pain has a way of perpetuating progress. Growth typically demands a little discomfort. And if you can stay with it and trust it long enough, you start to see what’s waiting underneath all the noise.
Since losing my dad to Parkinson’s a few years ago, I’ve had to learn a similar lesson on a much deeper level. He was my compass – my measure for success, my North Star for what mattered. When he was gone, I felt unmoored. My therapist told me, “You don’t need all the external validation anymore.” It sounded simple, but it cracked open something in me.
Since then, I’ve been learning to navigate without that old reference point. I’ve had to become my own barometer – more patient, less critical, more willing to pause before judging whether something is “right.” That’s not just growth; it’s a full-scale redesign.
And in a funny way, that’s what this new season of HealthLinks Magazine represents.
The publication is evolving – visually, creatively and energetically. We’re making room for more authenticity, more connection, more stories that feel alive. I love that it’s not perfect. I love that we’re experimenting, listening, learning. That spirit of openness feels a lot like my life as a new dad – figuring it out as you go, trusting that curiosity and love will guide me even when I’m sleep-deprived and second-guessing everything.
Reinvention doesn’t mean erasing who we were. It means honoring the version that got us here and being brave enough to imagine what’s next. Whether it’s redesigning a magazine, rethinking your direction or just trying to keep a baby fed and a business running, there’s power in letting things shift.
So here’s to the in-between – the messy, meaningful middle where we grow into who we’re becoming.
Cullen’s Pub Note September/October 2025
HEALTH CARE ACCESS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Some HealthLinks Magazine readers are attuned to the access-to-care problem in South Carolina. Others are not. Here’s the reality: Nearly 90% of South Carolina’s counties are designated as “health care workforce shortage” areas by the Health Resources & Services Administration. This lack of providers/practices paired with some of the higher uninsured rates (more than 10% of South Carolina adults) in the country has led to a scarcity of consistent, quality care in our state.
South Carolina’s access-to-care problem doesn’t stop in the rural, underinsured communities. Even amply-insured, affluent residents of urban areas can wait weeks or even months to see a specialist – especially when providers’ schedules are full and patient visits are bound by time caps that make the health care experience feel sterile and forced.
South Carolina also has one of the least healthy patient populations in the country, with rates for chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease all considerably above the national average. So how do we recalibrate a misaligned system to better meet an unhealthy population where they are in hopes of streamlining health care to our communities?
At HealthLinks, we believe that access to health care education is a vital component of moving the “community health care emphasis” barometer from reactive to proactive. We need community leaders to champion health education initiatives and place quality health information with those of influence, but we also realize that in an environment where providers work long, arduous hours to make less money than ever, apathy for educating the public is understandable.
The recalibration of our health care system may actually start with re-aligning and prioritizing the provider/patient relationship. How? Create an environment where providers can autonomously deliver clinical care without having to navigate the incredibly layered and complex business side of health care. If the “business of health care” is stabilized, doctors can focus on patients instead of negotiating with payers or drowning in staffing, payroll, marketing, technology or any number of other necessary daily business dealings. The result: Patients, providers and the entire health care system all win.
HealthLinks partners with organizations across the Carolinas to connect doctors with the tools they need for financial and clinical success. In South Carolina, better access to care will come from health systems, independent practices and payers working together – sharing information, building partnerships and using technology to ensure every resident has access to quality health care.
If you have questions about any of our initiatives or ideas about how we can create a better health care system in South Carolina, please email us at Connect@HealthLinksSC.com.
Cullen’s Pub Note July/August 2025
Before I know it, I hear “Dad, it’s time” and I’m being ushered into the operating room where surgeons and their team prepare my wife for the cesarean surgery. Outfitted with a sterile suit and a look of apprehensive excitement on my face, I join my wife on the “safe” side of the curtain. A few “I love yous” and “I can’t believe this is happenings” later, the doctor swoops Marlowe Kemp above the surgical curtain for our first look at our child. Instant internal reaction: Oh no – she looks exactly like me. In those six short minutes, our lives were changed forever, and we couldn’t be any more thankful.
Twenty-four hours later, we arrived at home from the hospital with a healthy, beautiful baby girl. We began to settle into home life with baby Marlowe, and through excessive pets and treats convinced our puppies that their baby sister would not completely ruin their lives. Begrudgingly, they agreed and embraced her.
Soon enough it was time for Marlowe’s very first doctor’s appointment. Naturally, we left the house about three minutes before the appointment – who knew gathering a baby and her belongings together was such an arduous task? Thanks to our pediatrician’s office being about a mile from our house, we somehow arrived on time.
From the parking lot, we texted the practice nurse that we had arrived and were welcomed into a simple building, with basic but kid- and family-friendly patient rooms adorned with patient “art.” Soon thereafter, our pediatrician came to see us and instantly established a rapport with our family. The experience felt personal, local and like the genuine doctor/patient partnership that we wanted for our daughter.
Health care needs to be more human, more personal and more community based. I know I sound old-fashioned, but don’t we miss the days when our family doctors actually knew about our family, and we knew about theirs? We need not forget that relationships are a bridge to trust and that trust is fundamental in quality care. Providers and patients alike deserve a health care system that nurtures that physician/patient relationship and is void of sterile experiences that are so prevalent today.
In the coming months, HealthLinks and our partners will be working toward creating an ecosystem that balances this system, offering security and peace of mind for health care providers and in turn optimizing quality care for patients. For further information, please email Cullen@HealthLinksSC.com. As always, we appreciate our readers and followers and remain committed to providing quality, local health care information to our community
Cullen’s Pub Note May/June 2025
THE BEST VERSION OF YOU – AND ME
There are times when we all struggle to be the best version of ourselves. Lately has been one of those times for me. Moving into a new house and new office, all while counting down the days for our little girl to arrive, has certainly tested my patience and sanity. When life is chaotic, it becomes more challenging to offer the best versions of ourselves to loved ones, friends and colleagues. Sometimes we even start to lower our expectations for ourselves in an effort to just get through the day. Recently, more than ever, I have to continue to remind myself that the people around me still deserve the best version of me, despite what I may be going through – and it’s up to me to continue to give them exactly that.
The winners highlighted in the magazine you’re holding have helped provide inspiration for me. Day in and day out, these health leaders offer patients and clients the best versions of themselves. The 2025 Best in Health edition of HealthLinks Magazine takes the time to recognize those who offer best-in-class care and health solutions to our Lowcountry community. Highlighting these individuals each year is a responsibility that HealthLinks takes seriously. With nearly 15,000 votes in more than 100 categories, this year’s Best in Health marks our most engaged-with iteration in history.
The best version of myself is someone who brings joy to everyone I see – someone who sees opportunity for positive change in every situation. The best version of myself is a son, a husband, a father-to-be and a friend who makes his loved ones laugh and encourages them not to take themselves too seriously. My best self cares deeply about the health care world and effecting positive change in how health care is offered to our community. The best version of myself looks at problems as challenges that demand solutions and appreciates the opportunity to solve them. The best version of myself is a leader who people choose to follow.
There will always be stressors and obstacles in life. What’s important is that we confront them head on and learn from them rather than letting them break us down into a lesser version of ourselves. In these busy weeks to come, I plan to draw inspiration from the individuals and companies listed in this publication and understand that part of my responsibility as a puppy-father/soon-to-be-human-father, husband and CEO is to take a page out of this magazine, so to speak, and fill my toolbox with positive, productive coping skills so I can continue to show up for my company, friends, family and this amazing community.
Cullen’s Pub Note March/April 2025
Recognizing the Value of Sacrifice
Despite the nearing deadline to submit this note for print, my fingers linger on the side of my laptop instead of furiously pecking the black letters that would typically have their attention under such a tight timeline.
Instead of the task at hand, all of my senses are engaged in the nature that surrounds me. I watch gulls, herons and ducks dive and hunt for baitfish trapped by the outgoing tides on the extensive mud flats that surround my property. Behind me, the songbirds chatter back and forth among the trees that envelop our house. The salt smell from the ocean overpowers my K-cup coffee, reminding me of childhood trips to the beach in lieu of the work at hand. My Adirondack chair digs into the sand, and I feel almost as though I have become part of the marsh grasses, oyster beds and coastal estuary I call home.
I can only describe the feeling that Treetops, our aptly-named Wadmalaw Island home, evokes as “youthful freedom.” Somehow this place transforms 35-year-old me back to a time when fun topped the list of my daily objectives. Whether it’s been fishing, crabbing, cooking oysters, creating a makeshift golf course or watching movies under the pavilion in front of a blazing fire, Treetops has always found a way to make fun easily achievable.
In January, my wife and I made the decision to list Treetops for sale. With our first baby due in May, it was time to trade in freedom for functionality and wave goodbye to the place we called our “forever home” just two years prior. After going under contract, I found myself in a funk – moping around and lamenting how selling this house felt like selling my soul. Finally, my wife had enough: “You know, in a couple of months you won’t be thinking about sunsets and oyster roasts when your baby girl smiles at you.”
I was overcome with emotion, and tears formed in my eyes. She was right. Treetops is just a place, while my true home will always be with my family. It became clear that this sacrifice could teach me how to live for something bigger than myself and that my personal perspective would develop and grow through the lens of fatherhood. The fountain of youth I found on Wadmalaw would overflow with fervor for being a father. There would be positives and progress that came through this sacrifice.
More recently, I must admit that I’m trying to soak up every last bit of Treetops before we move in March, but my lament has turned to excitement for the future. While in the moment making sacrifices may seem troubling, if we allow ourselves to step back from the situation and analyze our why, we may just find peace in a new perspective.
Cullen’s Pub Note January/February 2025
A Grateful Girl Dad
I’ve always wanted to be a father. Growing up, I was fortunate to have two loving, present parents, each with their own unique style of parenting. My mother was, and still is, my best friend and most fierce protector. My father was critical, but his love and commitment to his son were unquestionable. As a child, I found myself in regular reflection of how I would parent differently – even better. Fuming with teen angst, I’d fight and rebel against their parenting like bait fish trapped in a cast net. Confident that I had already figured the world out, I was often blind to the lessons my parents laid in front of me. Yet, as I matured and developed self and situational awareness, I began to understand why my parents were tough on me. More than anything, they wanted me to be happy and successful.
This fall, Marissa and I learned that we would be having a baby girl in May. On the edge of our seats, we watched as the ultrasound revealed hands, feet and a heartbeat! Our eyes glistened with happy tears when we found out our little girl was free of any early onset health concerns. As I’m writing this note, we are beginning to put professional and personal pieces in place to welcome her into as stable and secure of a Kemp family world as possible.
For a period of time, I struggled with identity issues around being a girl dad. I realized that I had always looked at parenting as being the father of a son. As such, all of my planning and analysis of best parenting practices were now obsolete. I even questioned whether I’d be able to see myself in a daughter rather than in a son.
My girl-dad insecurities quickly dissolved, and excitement began to bloom. I started to understand that for me, being a parent was never about having a boy or a girl but more about the opportunity to shepherd a child into this world. The sex of our child didn’t matter – all that counts is that our baby is healthy, safe and happy.
Before long, something strange happened. I felt myself actually becoming partial to the girl-dad idea. I could now approach being a father without any preconceived parenting notions. I became more aware of the inspirational women in my life, looking at my wife and mother in wonderment and awe. My ears perked up when people described the unique daughter/ dad love. The phrase “My father can never do anything wrong” engenders some pretty awesome peace of mind for a knowingly naive dad-to-be.
This issue of HealthLinks helps shine a light on women in South Carolina who’ve had a positive impact in shaping health care in our state. As I spoke to a roomful of our 2025 HealthLinks Women in Health nominees this fall, I was overcome with hope for our daughter to be. I am grateful for the roads paved by these women and how they’ve illuminated pathways for future generations of women to find success and overcome obstacles.
Cullen’s Pub Note November/December 2024
My late father was a world-renowned coastal ecologist whose work will undoubtedly have a great effect on the work of generations of future scientists. As such, my father received numerous awards for his work and impact in his field. However, his perspective was always that, collectively, scientists are greater than the sum of their parts. He would harp tirelessly to me about the value of collaborative, collective thinking. The career accomplishment he was most proud of was the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation Scientific Lifetime Achievement Award, which, for the first time in history, was given as a dual award to my father and his closest friend and fellow scientist, Walter Boynton. “My mind and Walter’s work in two distinctly different, incredibly incoherent ways, but together we often make some sense in science,” my dad would joke.
find my father’s value of collaborative work prevalent as HealthLinks continues to grow and embark on exciting new partnerships with cornerstone physician groups like the South Carolina Medical Association, the Charleston County Medical Society and others who work to bring physicians together for advocacy, education and collaboration. In the spirit of communication and collaboration, 2025 will offer South Carolina physicians new opportunities to come together, connect with their peers and discuss changes that affect the care they provide to our community.
As 2024 comes to a close, HealthLinks is also set to merge with a preeminent health care marketing agency in South Carolina to form HealthLinks Marketing, a full-service, health care-exclusive marketing agency. Capitalizing on collectivity, this partnership will give our teams and partners access to additional resources and set the table for significant, strategic improvements for patients and providers alike moving into the new year.
In the end, my father understood that, without collaboration with other scientists, the potential to further coastal ecology would be limited. He valued colleagues who disagreed with him as much or more than those who agreed because solutions to science’s problems often are nuanced and rarely linear. In order to further understanding and research in his field, his theories needed to be challenged; he understood that scientists should never work in a vacuum. Medicine needs the same collaborative approach.
My hope is that the current health care system does not preclude providers from spending time together, despite demands such as increased charting requirements and complicated reimbursement procedures mounting for our medical providers. Somehow, they should find time to continue communicating and collaborating with their colleagues – regardless of affiliation. In the spirit of providing the best possible care for South Carolinians, perhaps increased collaboration in medicine should be a priority.
If you’re a physician looking to become more involved with your colleagues or peers, please email me directly at Cullen@HealthLinksSC.com, and we will point you in the right direction.
Cullen’s Pub Note May/June 2024
How Appreciation Can Ground Us
As an only child of two well-educated marine biologists, I have been given a lot in my first 34 years on this earth. My only wish is that I could have understood the value of gratitude and appreciation then, the way I do now.
Throughout my childhood and high school years, I would frequently push the envelope and act out. I made mistakes and got into all sorts of trouble but was always gifted the guidance and direction toward becoming a productive person. I know now that not everyone is afforded second, third and fourth chances; back then it didn’t cross my mind.
In college, I neglected to acknowledge everything my late father did for me to help me win an athletic scholarship, and assumed I was the best basketball player in the country and that no matter what, I’d play professionally. Taking this opportunity for granted opened a gateway to mistakes that ultimately caused me to lose the opportunity to play basketball at the highest level. Again, my parents were there to help redirect my energy toward education, an education that without an athletic scholarship, they were now going to have to finance.
Over time, I began to find my way with less and less hand holding. The collective effort of my parents, teachers, coaches and mentors had finally gotten through to me, but it wasn’t until nearly a decade later that I started understanding the value of practicing appreciation in the moment. I often wonder what a grateful 18-year-old Cullen could have accomplished. Of all the lessons I learned through my journey, being mindfully appreciative is one I wish I had retained a long time ago.
Writing this note fresh off my second 21-day gratitude practice, appreciation is admittedly atop my mind. Here’s what I have found:
- None of what my life has become would have been possible without outside influence.
- Anxiety and stress – which have compounded with maturity and self-awareness – can’t exist simultaneously with appreciation.
- Be grateful for resistance and co-exist with stress, for it is trying to tell you something.
- Appreciate yourself – your mind, body and surroundings.
- Even learn to appreciate the people who make your life more difficult. They are teaching you.
I’ve discovered that the practice of appreciation often shifts my perspective; my problems become opportunities and difficult people and situations teach me about myself.
As always, I hope the July/August edition of HealthLinks Magazine finds all our readers well and enjoying the summer season. If you’re sipping an iced tea in a front porch rocking chair, take a moment to notice your life and appreciate the moment.
Cullen’s Pub Note March/April 2024
It’s not often that we have the opportunity to give back to the people and places who lift us up during trying times. But I’m thrilled to share an invitation to join the HealthLinks family on the greens as we host a series of golf tournaments to do just that — support local charities that have supported us and the community. This invitation springs from my own personal gratitude.
Of the many memorable moments that my dad and I shared on the golf course during the final years of his life, one in particular sticks out. I had just shot my low round (at the time) of 74 on a fairly forgiving Oak Point Golf Course on Johns Island. My father and I sat on the clubhouse’s back porch sharing lagers, laughs, and a pristine view of the Kiawah River. For a moment, we forgot about the tremors, the mental and physical setbacks, and through a crooked smile my dad told me how proud of me he was. It was a moment of realization for my father that maybe he hadn’t done too terrible of a job with his life’s biggest project, raising his son.
Michael Kemp, world-renowned marine biologist/father/husband, passed away in the fall of 2020 from complications of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017, he and my mother moved to Charleston from their home in Maryland where they spent their lives studying the Chesapeake Bay. During the last three years of my father’s life, the one activity we kept coming back to was golf. While he did not play much, he spent countless hours in the cart analyzing and relearning his son. I was also able to discover so much about my father during those times. What I learned from him has shaped my life ever since. In addition to really discovering each other, I believe that my father found peace on the golf course. It was a place where the horrors of his medical reality somehow dissolved and the biggest problem at hand was watching his son curse the heavens as he sliced another tee ball into the water.
Throughout my father’s journey with these diseases, there were a couple of local medical charities and nonprofits that we leaned on for guidance during dark times. Parkinson’s Support Foundation and Respite Care of Charleston to name two, helped give my mother and me peace of mind when we were directionless. Having the opportunity to give back to these and other Charleston-based medical charities by way of the HealthLinks Charity Golf series is a full circle moment for me and would have be a point of pride for my father.
I also recognize that my family’s story is not unique and that there are thousands of other people who are struggling with similar situations in our community.
My hope is that you will consider sponsoring or playing in one, or all three, of our Charity golf tournaments this spring. Help us raise money to help these great organizations help our fellow community members in need.
As the first tee shots are hit at Stono Ferry on March 14, I know my father will be smiling down on us all, and undoubtedly laughing as so many of us slice, hook and shank our way to a great time for a great cause.
Cullen’s Pub Note January/February 2024
Each time I sit down to my computer to write this publisher’s note, I strive to say something meaningful or inspiring. I try to deliver a message that draws from my life’s experiences and that will resonate in a positive manner with those who read this column. This note had all the makings of a New Year’s resolution message like “The new year offers us a blank canvas where we can repaint our self-portrait with brushstrokes of better diet, more exercise and a renewed focus on mental health.”
While there’s certainly inspiration in the notion of new year, new you, I’m almost certain our readers have heard this message before and will inevitably see it this January on millions of Instagram feeds and health blogs. I believe we should always strive to be the best version of ourselves, but, for me, this year, that doesn’t mean five weeks of crash dieting and rigorous exercise. I will not be eating 18-wheelers of kale and pine nuts, nor will I break any records on my Peloton bike. Heck, it may take me until summer 2024 before I find the time to see my therapist again. And frankly, I’m OK with all of that.
Rather than committing to a new, better me, I will be working on reframing my perspective of myself. For my entire adult life, I’ve struggled with self-criticism and self-doubt. My shortcomings and failures appear crystal clear, while my accomplishments exist as afterthoughts at best. My frail ego exists almost exclusively on external affirmations from colleagues, friends and family. “True confidence” was a concept my late father worked diligently to instill in me as he saw through my boisterous facade growing up.
The self-deprecation came to a point this fall when we made the decision to, after five years, discontinue printing our sister magazine, HealthLinks Upstate. I pressed myself to think of this not as a failure but as an opportunity to refocus our efforts and keep up with a changing media and health care landscape. The internal dialogue didn’t cooperate. As a leader, I did my best to internalize my emotions and not let my team or family see the hollowness that was forming inside.
I told myself to stay the course, but the problems seemed to mount faster than the solutions. Eventually, I realized that I could no longer neglect my history of personal and professional success. I had to rewire my brain and my thought processes to see that I had brought good not only to my life but to the lives of those around me.
This year, let’s make a commitment to self-appreciation and trusting our intuitions. While we always strive to be the best version of ourselves, it’s about time to recognize that we are more than good enough just as we are.
It’s a new year and the same old us. And that’s a great thing.
Cullen’s Pub Note November/December 2023
2023 Packed A Punch, But I’m Fighting Back – And So Should You
If there’s one thing I learned to do in 2023, it’s how to roll with the punches. From my best friend/big “sister”/HealthLinks sales manager facing serious health obstacles to unanticipated, monumental changes at our company, I’ve been challenged at every turn, both personally and professionally. There have been times where I’ve yelled at the top of my lungs to an unresponsive Wadmalaw wooded area. There have been tears of frustration and anxiety pains that stuck with me for weeks on end. I’ve lashed out at loved ones and undoubtedly could have been kinder and more understanding to team members. I sought out solace in unhealthy habits and trudged through trying times, leaving grace behind.
But a point of clarity came during my daily morning conversation with my mom on my ride to work. I was hammering on: “I can’t do this. It’s too hard. Woe is me!”
She wouldn’t admit it, but I was wearing on her. My negative attitude and dreadful disposition were now her reason for fear and anxiety. While I was awake at night worried about me, so was she. I was so wrapped up with my own problems that I was blind to the impact I was having on her. That wasn’t fair, and it certainly never was my intention to burden someone I love.
I’d like to think that moment of lucidity changed me and made me refocus on how grateful I am to just be on this Earth with my health and the people I love. We all have problems that at one time or another seem insurmountable, but to constantly bestow them on our loved ones isn’t helping us move forward. Instead, it is hurting them.
Choose to be grateful and stay the course because the only thing we can control is our attitude. Look at those closest to you, and make sure you are having a positive impact on them. If you are causing them anxiety and worries, it may be time to adjust the prism through which you see your world – if not for yourself, then for the ones you love.
So bring it on 2024. I’m almost certain you will host more challenges, but if there’s one thing that 2023 has taught me, it’s that the solution has probably been inside of me all along. I just have to refocus my lens to see it.
Thanks to all our readers for making it another great year at HealthLinks. Our mission will continue to be improving access to health information for the Palmetto State. Don’t forget to check out our new website for easy access to hundreds of great doctors and thousands of local, fact-based health articles.