Who I Am Now — And Why I Finally Stopped Playing It Safe

If you've been following me for a while, you deserve to know something.

I'm not the same person I was when we met. And honestly? I wasn't fully myself then either.

I was The Busy Bee — a one-woman design agency with 42 clients at a time, zero stillness, and a very convincing performance of having it all together. I was good at what I did. My clients were happy. The business was alive.

But I wasn't.

Not really.

This is the story of how I found my way back. And how it took my grandmother's death to make me listen what my soul had been trying to tell me.

She had to say it from the other side

Mamá Elena passed away and shortly after, on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 2022, in Montellano Salcedo — the small rural town in the Dominican Republic where she had lived her entire life — we held her funeral.

I got the call of her passing in the middle of a big candle company rebrand and packaging design project. I was one of 42 clients deep. I got on a plane anyway.

In the Dominican Republic, it is customary to pray for nine days at the home of the deceased. We were gathered in her small living room — Catholic rosary beads in hand, surrounded by coronas, the large floral arrangements made for such occasions. My family was crying. My family was praying.

And I was mentally calculating how to get to a city with an internet café so I could finish my work.

That's when I heard her.

Mamá Elena — who was gone, who had just died, who I had traveled across the world to grieve — spoke to me clear as day.

"Pssssst. ¡Pon atención!"

Pay attention.

I'm telling you this because I need you to understand: I don't take that lightly. My grandmother had to reach me from the other side to get through. That is how busy I was. That is how disconnected I had become. That is how long I had been ignoring the part of myself that knew better.

I shut the computer in my brain off. I wrote her eulogy. I sat with my family and I grieved — properly, fully, finally present.

And when I got back to Connecticut, I did two things. I hired a coach. And I called every single client and terminated every single contract.

Forty-two of them.

Terrifying? Yes. The right thing? Absolutely.

What I came back to

Here is what I came back to: art. The thing that was always mine, before I knew what to call it.

I was three years old the first time I handed my father a scribbled-up piece of paper and insisted I had drawn him a puppy. He believed me. My mom thought it looked like chaos. My dad called it art. That moment planted something I spent years trying to grow on the side while I built everyone else's brands.

By first grade, one of my paintings was selected for display at the New Britain Museum of American Art. In third grade, my mother enrolled me in art classes in Santiago at the Centro Cultural Dominico Americano. I have been making things my whole life — I just kept treating it like a hobby while I treated everyone else's work like a career.

Mamá Elena said pon atención. So I did.

Who I am now

I am Jasleni Brito. Dominican American. Sacred creator and lover of color. I paint stories of feminine beauty and resilience. I coach women who are ready to stop circling and start moving. I created La Caribeña Oracle — a 50-card deck rooted in ancestral wisdom, Dominican roots, and the everyday magic we often overlook.

My work lives at the intersection of creativity, spirituality, and real-life confidence. It is where ritual meets creativity, where paint becomes prayer, and stories are transformed into living color.

This is not a side hustle. This is not a hobby. This is me, finally, paying attention.

Here is what's available in my world right now:

Original paintings and fine art prints — bold, colorful, deeply intentional. Not just for walls. For mirrors.

The Portal Sessions — private, one-on-one coaching for women ready to break old patterns and move forward with intention. Confidence, clarity, and getting out of your own damn way. You don't need fixing. You need support.

La Caribeña Oracle — 50 cards. Ancestral wisdom. Dominican roots. For the woman who knows something is guiding her and just needs help listening.

Intuitive oracle readings — one-on-one sessions for clarity and direction as you step into your next chapter.

Not sure where to start? Take the free oracle quiz and let your intuition lead you to exactly what you need right now. Take the Free Oracle Quiz →

The question she left me with

Mamá Elena was a mother to eleven children. A grandmother to many dozens more. She lived a simple, quiet, deeply impactful life in a small town most people have never heard of. And even from the other side, she had enough power to stop me cold in a room full of rosary beads and grief and tell me to wake up.

I think about that a lot.

I think about how long I was sleepwalking. How many years I spent being good at things that didn't light me up. How the work I was meant to do was always there, waiting patiently, not going anywhere.

And I think about the women I meet who are doing the same thing. Smart, talented, deeply capable women who are excellent at the safe version of their life while the real version waits just outside the door.

Maybe you're one of them.

Maybe your Mamá Elena moment hasn't come yet. Or maybe it already has and you've been too busy to honor it.

So I'll leave you with the same question she left me:

¿Qué estás esperando?

What are you waiting for?

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Food for Thought Journal prompt:

Is there a moment in your life — a loss, a wake-up call, a voice you heard and didn't want to hear — that has been trying to tell you something?

What would it look like to finally pay attention?

If you're ready to stop waiting:

Take the Free Oracle Quiz →

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