Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Egypt Iredia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Egypt, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Definitely sooner. I was stuck in the toxic cycle of people pleasing, and not listening to my inner voice. I felt I had to the expectations thrown at me. I wasted many years of my life, doing things that brought me little joy. It’s a sad reality but I didn’t feel accepted when I truly expressed myself. I’ve long since overcome that, and now slowly rebuilding my creative life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello I’m Egypt. I’m a multi-passionate, non-linear thinker, and overall life misfit. My professional and creative paths are forged from a unique medley of creativity, writing, healing, and self-discovery. I’m slowly unfolding my creative essence through the exploration of my voice through writing, speaking, and other creative avenues. Professionally I studied, medicine and later herbalism and Naturopathic medicine. I’m continually engaged in lifelong learning and expression and have also been a student of writing, poetry, empowerment, and visual arts.

I don’t like to box myself in one singular life pursuit. I don’t have a singular passion. I’m what you might call a Renaissance person or multi-potentialite. It would be easier to state who I am, and what I do professionally in one or two succinct sentences. But that’s not me. I’m not a specialist. I consciously choose to be a multi-passionate person and explore a few areas in my journey through life. Life is more interesting to me this way, and it makes sense to me. Even if no one else understands it.

My path has been twisted and turbulent on my way to self-actualization. It’s been mostly lonely as my family and many of my friends don’t support my inclinations. But I live for myself not them. I trained as a medical doctor in the UK, almost 15 years ago. I started in that field with a fierce passion for being helpful to others.

Yet through my training and work experience, I felt like an imposter, and the energy of the healthcare industry didn’t align with me. I had to reimagine the vision of my childhood dreams of becoming a doctor and reassess if that was what I wanted. I realized this dream was one forced on me by my parent, and not of my choosing. It didn’t help that I cared little for fierce competition, ego-stroking, and shady healthcare policies. The stuff that can be abundant fodder in clinical practice. I also explored deeply what it meant to be a healer and to heal. I realized I needed more tools to help myself and others fully heal from health challenges, Long story short this questioning led me to natural medicine.

I went on to train in herbalism and naturopathic medicine in the USA after that. In addition to my other lifelong learning pursuits. Now I’m a contributing writer to online publications where I write on a medley of subjects. I discuss topics on female empowerment, minimalism, slow living, intentional, healing, spirituality, creativity, and authentic living. I also write on my website. I’m in the process of publishing a collection of poetry. I love to collaborate with other great thinkers and have featured in many podcasts.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve unlearned the need to be a specialist in life. Not everyone is suited to focus on one major thing through their whole life and stick with it. This is a lesson I wish I had encountered earlier. Perhaps I wouldn’t have felt like such an imposter in my own life. I love being a generalist now. Some people need to know they can walk their own unusual, and misfit paths without apology. For so many years I tried to focus on just one professional area in my life, yet failed. I tried so hard to squeeze my identity into a box. To be a perfect doctor and nothing else.

But it didn’t work. I was interested in artistic expression, writing, spirituality, and more. How could I encompass my entire being into a few areas for the rest of my life? Now I gently navigate life wearing many hats. Unschooling mom, writer, healer, poet, philosopher, spiritual coach, misfit. The label doesn’t matter as much as the level of joy and presence I bring to different areas of my life.

I’ve now learned to embrace all my main interests and roll with them. See where life takes me on this journey of exploration. Sometimes the only person we need on our team is ourselves.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, I’d have to say freedom. Freedom is the overarching energy that drives what I do in life. My innate desire is to live as authentically as possible. It’s my overall driver for most things I do in life. I yearn to be more free in body and soul. Freedom from rigid dogma. Freedom from narrow career guidelines. Freedom from artistic restriction. Freedom from social conditioning. Freedom from patriarchy and toxic femininity. Freedom from people pleasing. Freedom from walking others’ paths. Freedom from so many things. Yes, this is the one word, that informs all that I do and all I aspire to be in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://manifestingalchemy.com/