The Creativity Corner with Dr. Ebi Oginni
Where we learn about the powerful intersection of creativity and healing.
Spotlight: Dr. Ebi Oginni
Artist, Coach, Author & Speaker, bringing healing, contagious joy and persevering faith
Ebi and I met earlier this year in an online business community. As you’re about to see, she is an accomplished pediatrician, writer, and singer/songwriter. I’m excited to share the important insights she has related to creativity, teen mental health, and the responsibility of community in mental health healing and recovery.
Ebi and I spoke over Zoom. This is our conversation, edited for content and readability.
More About Dr. Ebi Oginni
Could you tell us a little bit about your background, so readers get a sense of you, where you’re from and how that informs who you are today?
I’m originally from Nigeria. I went to boarding school at nine years of age and it’s quite common to do that back home, as a secondary school student. They thought that it was a great way to become responsible, to become resilient, to learn life skills. Then I moved to Dublin for medical school, and I lived in Dublin for 14 years, finished medical school there, started working as a doctor, got married, and then moved to the UK.
Creativity as Path to Resolution
You fill many roles: physician, singer, coach, author, speaker. Now that you’ve told us where you’re from can you also share about how that journey inspired you to fill these many roles?
I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. I think since I was three years of age, maybe because I got one of those toy ambulances for my 3-year-old birthday. I remember loving the stethoscope and the syringe and imagining I was giving people injections. From that early age I knew I wanted to be a doctor, and it never went away.
There were times that I thought I didn’t have it in me. I couldn’t hack it. Times I failed some exams and I was like, maybe this is not for me. But I kept going and eventually graduated as a doctor and went into pediatrics because that was the specialty that just felt right for me. And in the course of my pediatric residency, the pandemic happened.
It was a stressful time. I had moved from working in Ireland to the UK, two different systems. I was in a new country with a year off for maternity leave, having to start in a new job, in a new hospital, with new bosses. And then the pandemic also happened. I went back to songwriting as a way to bring some joy back into my life. We had some extra time and people were doing things they loved. For me, it was songwriting and music. Then, I felt called to actually begin releasing some music.
One thing I noticed as I kept going with music was that it began to feel like it was a part of me that I had been neglecting. Becoming a professional singer helped me thrive. I was using a different part of my brain for music.
So when people thought, How in the world are you working during the day as a doctor and going to do music stuff later on, I was like, It doesn’t feel like work. Plus, I think there were a lot of things that I processed through my music.
If I was having a difficult time at work I would write a song that brought some sort of resolution, some sort of beauty to the pain. And not only did it help me, it helped other people as well. Many of my songs came out of a real place and experience. People related to it. So in that way it didn’t feel like extra work, it just felt right. Beautiful.
Dr. Ebi’s Book: Pursue Your Passion, Uncover Your Calling
Your book, Pursue Your Passion Uncover Your Calling, provides readers with “everything they need to start making an impact creating a lasting legacy.” Can you tell us more about it?
I think it’s something that will help not just artists, because I wrote ways that you could find your calling. I put journaling prompts and activities that people can go through to help them find what the extra thing is that might lead to fulfillment.
And then, when you find your calling, how you can step into it. Where to find mentors, where to start learning, and how to find paid opportunities as well.
Creativity as a Gift to Help Others
The focus of this column is the connection of creativity and healing and how they act like a feedback loop. You realized that creativity wasn’t just another task; rather, it connected you to a neglected part of your soul that connects you to your humanity.
Your music has such a healing effect on other people. Can you talk about how you feel like music bolsters you and is also a gift to other people?
Yes. There’s a song I wrote that was inspired by listening to someone’s podcast. She was telling a story about how she was taking surfing lessons. She’d get on the board, try to stand and surf, and be wiped out and fall into the sea. The coach would shout at her to get back on. She would and she’d fall off again and again.
The more you do something the better you get. You keep getting on the board and keep going and keep getting better. There was something about that story that stayed with me, because of the whole concept of not giving up.
When we think we’re doing the same thing over and over, and wondering if our life is going anywhere, we feel stuck. But actually, something is still happening. If you are doing something creative over and over again, you are growing stronger. You are becoming more resilient. You’re building that inner core of steel.
I wrote a song called, “Growing.” It talks about resilience. The lyrics are, “I’m growing through the pain. I’m growing through the tears. I’m growing in the midst of it all. I’m getting stronger through the strain. I’m healing through the ache. I’m growing in the midst of it all.”
That song, every time I sing it, it’s just so powerful. People hear the song, hear the words, and I can see how impactful it is for them.
I share stories and I share my songs and I say how passionate I am to bring healing to people around me. This is why I’m doing what I’m doing.
Creativity as Clarity
When you are writing a song and you’re in the zone, which to me is like your ego getting out of the way and your true internal, human, creative spirit taking over, what is that experience like for you?
Sometimes when I write it’s almost like the song writes itself, just flows out of me. And then before I know it, I’m like, “Did I write this?”
And there are times when I want to write about a topic. I don’t know the lines. I don’t know the words. The beautiful thing is when I’m writing my way through something that’s not resolved. I’m writing to help myself get through it. So those are the songs that I have no idea what the finished product will be like. It’s even more beautiful when I get something out of the process of writing that gives me clarity.
Creativity and Letting Go of Judgment
Do you think having a regular creative practice has helped you heal your inner critic? I guess I’m looking for the connection of how that negative voice we have gets healed by coming back time and again to a practice.
I deal with it in two ways. First, I get a deadline. I work well with deadlines. Whenever I book a studio date with my producer, I’m like, Yeah, I need to finish the song, and I finish the song. But the other thing that I struggle with more is vocals. Vocalists, we keep comparing ourselves to other vocalists, and we want do all of these things that we hear, which we might not be great at, and we keep faulting ourselves.
Last year, I started to work with a different producer, and he will, I kid you not, he will just let me do a couple of takes and say, That’s fine. I’m like, What? No. Sometimes you just have to trust someone’s judgment.
Note: Ebi answers as an artist who creates for public consumption versus solely private use.
I love that somebody else is helping you get to the point of acceptance. Do you feel about your own voice that it’s getting easier for you to let go of judging? This piece, of letting go of judgment, is important to creativity and healing. Learning how to think and believe that what we’re doing is good enough. No longer being obsessed with perfection.
I think this is a struggle all artists will continue to feel, because even when you master a skill, then you want to do another one. In a way it’s good because it pushes you to get better, but I think we definitely need to temper it. Not deprive other people of our gifts.
You want everyone to want to get better as artists, always learning something new. So I will never say we need to get the point where we’re happy with ourselves because then you won’t grow. But the key is to not let that growth stop you.
At the end of the day, this music is not for us. It’s for the world. If you hold it back, you’ve deprived so many people of that blessing, that impact of the good that you can do.
Creativity’s Connection to Teen Mental Health and Wellness
Your website says, “Ebi is deeply committed to collective wellbeing. She’s currently spearheading a mental health project aimed at arming young people and their families with essential coping skills.”
Can you tell us more about this project and what you’re hoping to accomplish with teens and their families?
It’s called The Harmony and Healing Project. It came about from my work in pediatrics. I started to get frustrated and unhappy with the amount of mental health difficulties that came through the door. As doctors, we sort out the medical side of things and we pass the buck to the mental health care professionals. We discharge these kids and many of them will end up right back in with us.
I began to feel like, Are we doing anything? It feels like we’re just putting a Band-aid on. I’m not actually talking to them or helping them with their mental health difficulties. I began to wonder if there was something more I could do. If they’re not being seen right away by mental health professionals, they’re going home and waiting weeks and weeks for a phone call. It occurred to me that if everyone is passing the buck then no one is really helping these kids.
I decided to do more about it, because the answers I was coming up with were that people don’t feel equipped. I remember talking to a teenager who came in after an overdose. She said she’d been struggling for the last year. She’d been referred to mental health, but had not yet been seen. She’d been given some online websites to visit that were not helpful. She didn’t talk to her mom, because she didn’t want to worry her. And I was asking, Who else could you talk to?
I started to realize that a lot of presentations to hospitals with mental health difficulties are very likely due to missed opportunities in the community. Most of the time, there would have been signs, maybe some struggles in the community before they got to the point of taking an overdose. Had anyone actually had a conversation with this girl? Did anyone feel equipped to do that? Do people even realize that they have responsibility to help? Or do they think that this is only the work of mental health professionals? There is a small percentage of mental health professionals with a huge number of people that are struggling.
There is a real problem if we don’t all think we have a role to play.
I really appreciate you pointing that out because it’s something I say as well. We all have a role to play in normalizing conversation around mental health. So exactly, maybe she didn’t feel comfortable because of something inside of herself. Much more likely is that she felt uncomfortable because nobody was talking about mental health. In every area where people come together, whether it’s your house, whether it’s your house of worship, whether it’s your school, all of these places are places where we could be having conversations. Then, a child or an adult who is struggling doesn’t have to feel like they cannot share that fact with anyone, assuming that no one will understand.
Yes, and my current album for The Harmony and Healing project will be songs on mental health. Songs that speak to things like anxiety. There’s one called “Talk to Me.” To get people to realize that it’s okay to open up. It’s okay to cry. Just trying to normalize all that. Another song is called “Lifeline.” It encourages people to look out for people that may be struggling, and to check in to start a conversation.
Help Fund the Harmony and Healing Project
As a pediatrician and gospel/soul singer-songwriter, Ebi is committed to empowering teenagers and supporting their mental health. She’s raising £10,000 to produce inspiring music and monthly podcast interviews with mental health experts, and to create a supportive online community. Join in her mission to equip teenagers and their families with essential tools for mental health.
Creativity as a Bridge
I think people are afraid to talk about mental health. And I think a song can be the exact bridge that someone needs if they feel afraid or they just don’t know what to say. We don’t have to know the perfect thing to say. You can say to someone, Have you heard this song? Let’s talk about it. How are you feeling? Such a powerful tool. I feel the same about books.
You’ve just given me another idea on how to use the songs. I never thought about saying, Let’s listen to this song together and let’s talk about it. I keep wondering about the best way to engage teenagers. Actually, this might be the best way. Listen to the song and talk, together.
Creativity as Authenticity
We’ve touched on your creative expression and how it’s impacted your relationship with yourself. I know you mentioned specifically that the pandemic and your move from Ireland to the UK was such a volatile time in your life. You turned to creativity for solace and an outlet. I think many people who use creativity can relate to that.
Can you talk a little bit more about how the practice helped you become even more authentically yourself and why that matters?
When you start out in the music industry you wonder what the best way is to become famous. You release music in the style of other people and before you know it, you’ve gone down a rabbit hole of doing something that’s not you at all. I got a lot of rejections.
I realized that I wanted and needed to release music that felt authentic. Music with messages that were impactful for me, because I knew if I talked about what matters to me, that’s magnetic. People hear you and they connect and they get on board very quickly. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re blowing up the charts or not.
I release music that brings healing because that’s me, that’s the whole reason why I’m doing this. I’m leaning into that, and people are seeing the value.
When we do that we allow ourselves to be us and let our creativity rise from that, not to please anyone else or to fit the current trend. There is such power in that. And because you are not conforming, you’re not compromising your values. Most importantly, you find true joy because you’re doing what brings you joy.
Many of us get convinced when we’re young that if we can’t make a business out of creativity it’s a waste of time. We’ve lopped off an essential part of our humanity. If we don’t have a way to be creative, we don’t have a root that connects us to the pure manifestation of joy that is unique to being creative.
Absolutely. I feel like life would not have been so good to me if I wasn’t doing this. The reason why I keep writing is because I’m a results driven person and I’ve committed to releasing songs. But before, I would get inspiration for a song and because I wasn’t going to do anything with it, I never went back to it. I never followed through.
I honestly cannot compare life before I started to do music to now. It is a whole new level of fulfillment. I feel like I’m truly living. The sad part is, I didn’t realize that I was only half living before. The world says, just be a parent and just do your job. But we need to explore, we need to share, we need to express. There are important reasons we were given that creative part of us.
Connect with Ebi
Are you looking for an unforgettable experience that will leave your audience inspired and empowered? Ebi Oginni is also an inspirational speaker with a unique twist—she combines powerful speeches with heartfelt music. With professional training from the expert speaker academy in the UK, and renowned speakers like TED talk coach Holley Mignosi and Tricia Brouke, Ebi delivers “keynote concerts” that are not just inspiring, but truly unforgettable.
Wow! What an amazing person Ebi is! I admire that she is a pediatrician, and on top of that, she’s writing songs, singing and working to help children with their mental health. It seems unusual for someone to have such left brain & right brain capabilities, no less to use both to this extent. What she’s doing highlights how poor mental health care accessibility is. We sure need way more pediatricians and primary care doctors to ask the right questions and facilitate mental health care.
Hi Sue, I’m glad you enjoyed meeting Ebi! I sure enjoyed our conversation. Yes. I think it’s so important that people working in the medical community are willing to say that aspects don’t work well because that mirrors our experiences as users of the system. While I agree that we need more peds and primary docs (in general, psychiatrists and lots of other things too) what I hope our conversation highlights for folks in a unique way is that we ALL have a role to play in talking about mental health. It won’t be easy, but if we can get in the habit of offering/requesting it in all the places we live regular lives hopefully we can turn the tide!
Yes!
And it occurs to me how, in America, we typically greet each other with the likes of “How are you?” All too often the response is “Fine” when that’s actually not the case. It can take a close friend and/or a very perceptive person to realize “fine” is not seemingly the case, and gear the conversation in a way that may open up the other person up talking about why they are not fine. I heard that in China, a typical greeting is “Have you eaten lately?” If the answer is “no”, the problem has an easy solution if food is available.
In our culture, we are so used to saying we are fine that it can be an automatic response. From there, the conversation turns to something else. And I’m sure that a lot of people expect the response to be “Fine”, as well as get a dreaded feeling if the answer in not “Fine.” Also, this greeting itself can be so automatic and said so casually that the respondent doesn’t think the greeter really cares about what’s really going on. Of course there is a big difference in how we greet a checker at the market, an acquaintance, a friend, a relative, etc. If only we all had the humanity and know-how to recognize when someone might need mental health support, and then act on it without being perceived as nosy. Maybe it starts with asking, in a less casual way than we are used to, how someone is, and recognizing that someone who says they are fine may not be fine.
I couldn’t agree more, Sue. xo