Follow yuh mind

Dara E Healy

Playing your games

You get your tail cut

And after that

Is ifs and buts

If and but are words that you use

When you want to make excuse

Ah coulda dis

Ah coulda dat

Ah shoulda dis

Ah shoulda dat

– from If I Coulda by Mighty Shadow

I ALWAYS know when a situation is not right. Typically, there is a visceral response from my body – stomach churning, lower back pain, shortness of breath. I am sure you understand what I mean. It is a sense of foreboding that a particular decision or course of action is not the best. But without sufficient information, all you have is that pain in your gut and the knowledge that all is not aligned in your universe.

Decision-makers face this conundrum daily, sometimes hourly, as people expect decisions and actions that will positively impact their lives. It is the same for creative entrepreneurs. Artists are driven by their emotional, instinctive and spiritual connections to the energies around us. We face all the challenges of business, but with an additional concern. When confronted with a decision that could impact the future of the organisation, is it enough to rely on our instinct?

In his calypso, Mighty Shadow is fairly unsympathetic about our tendency to get into situations that we already know we would not be able to handle. “You know you can’t box/You jump in the ring/All the time you bobbing and you weaving.”

He is also impatient about the fact that not only do we second-guess the decisions we have made, but we then attempt to come up with other possible scenarios, when it is probably too late. He sings, “Well if you coulda/You shoulda/And if you coulda/You woulda.”

Admittedly, I used to agree with Shadow’s position. Do not jump into situations that you do not completely understand or are not prepared to handle. However, after some of my experiences over the past weeks and months, I am beginning to think that sometimes it is necessary to jump, churning stomach and all.

We often use the terms instinct and intuition interchangeably, but I am learning that they both have very different meanings. Instinct is what humans are born with. It is connected to our primordial ability to detect danger, be it when we hear a loud noise or experience sudden stillness. A mother will cover her baby with her body to protect the child from being hurt.

Our instinct tells us that survival is often easier if we work together. On the other hand, intuition is described as “a powerful form of pattern recognition.” These patterns are the experiences or the information that allow us to better understand and manage our world.

Creatives function primarily from an emotional, instinctive place. We feel deeply about an issue and set out to fix it. Often there is little, if any, consideration about what this would cost. Our passion drives us to paint, create films or masquerade. Our intuition tells us that the project will succeed because our community needs it and funding can be found. We innovate and disrupt towards our end goal of empowerment.

Yet, as a Forbes article points out, it is not enough to only trust intuition or instinct. All ventures require research, data or support from a trusted network. So, “if you take a deep dive into a subject and study numerous possibilities, you are exercising intelligence when your gut instinct tells you what is – and isn't – important.”

I confess that recently I have suffered several Shadow moments, what I could have or should have done. I admit, too, that because I wanted a particular outcome, I bobbed and weaved to try to make it work.

Interestingly, after analysing everything, I recognise that while my instinct was screaming at me to run for safety, my intuition was saying that such a decision would not have been well received. In the end, because there were so many different parties involved and the potential rewards, I took a calculated risk.

Daily I am guided by my instinct and the presence of my ancestors. Time will reveal the wisdom of this latest decision, but my intuition and my faith say that all will be well. Leadership is lonely, whether in creative or other spaces, so it is essential to strengthen your personal vision to help you know what path to take. Follow yuh mind, always.

Dara E Healy is a performing artist and founder of the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN