You don't know what you've got until it's gone, and after R&B singer Jazmine Robinson got into a car accident that could have potentially stolen her God-given gift for life, she realized that it was time to kick her hustle into overdrive.
Just shy of her 23rd birthday, Jazmine was headed to see longtime family friend Kandi Burruss, and her family when she was hit from behind by a reckless driver. She told xoNecole, "And at first I got out the car and I was fine, but then like everything just started aching. The first thing I thought was, 'oh my gosh, my body.' I use my body to dance. I definitely took mobility for granted up until that point. I'm just like, 'oh my goodness, I cannot move.'" According to Jazmine, the only thing more crippling than the shock of her accident was the thought of never being able to dance again.
"It made me think that all those goals that I had written on my list would never get accomplished. Like, what if it was worse? What if I couldn't move again? I didn't want that."
Not long after, Jazmine knew it was time to become fearless in the pursuit of her purpose, packed up her things, and moved from Atlanta to LA to pursue her entertainment career full-time. For Jazmine, her near-death experience was what pushed her into her destiny. "I feel like maybe that was the tipping point. Because it could all be over, over."
Now, Jazmine says that she can take pride in starting and ending each day knowing that she's doing the damn thing, without fear that she'll ever leave this earth wondering "what if". The entertainer recently released her latest project, Ocean, for which she single-handedly self-produced a visual for and sis has more heat otw. Between auditions, recording, and being a nanny to the stars, Jazmine says that she can barely find time to find sleep, but the entertainer did get a minute to fill us in on how she finds balance despite her ultra-busy schedule:
When do you feel most beautiful?
Tee J (@hustleandnap)
"If I'm like accomplishing something I feel most beautiful and it doesn't matter how I'm looking in the moment. I can't pinpoint that to a look, it's more of a feeling. Like me driving 36 hours to LA, that was beautiful to me. That's when I was most proud of myself and I thought to myself, 'wow, girl, you look good, you doing the damn thing.' When I get up in the morning and I don't want to, but I go exercise; I come back and I'm like, 'girl, you look good!' I remember it was such a time when I didn't do those things; when I wasn't kind to myself in that way to schedule personal time for myself, and it really just made me sad. Being happy is a choice that I have to make and it's got to be the first one that I make in the morning."
"I remember it was such a time when I didn't do those things; when I wasn't kind to myself in that way to schedule personal time for myself, and it really just made me sad. Being happy is a choice that I have to make and it's got to be the first one that I make in the morning."
What are your mornings like?
"Praying, whether it's by myself or with my friends. We'll all call each other on a group chat and just literally pray and speak over our lives and our dreams. Like every day, it's serious."
What do you find to be the most hectic part of your week?
"When I'm having a busy week, the most hectic part would probably be finding time to sleep. I will literally schedule myself to do things and never schedule sleep and then look up and it'll be like four in the morning and I'm like, 'gosh, I really need to be up at six. What am I going to do?' So though I have been running with this ambition, I'm now trying to pace myself in it."
Do you practice any types of self-care?
Tee J (@hustleandnap)
"For me, self-care is a good hair mask, a good Michael Todd or Sarah Jakes Roberts Sermon, and that's about it. I'll really just sit there and watch sermons all day or, speeches, interviews, things like that. To me, that is like a form of self-care because it's someone pouring into me versus me pouring out all the time."
How do you find balance with:
Love/Marriage?
"The way that I find balance with having fun with them is doing business with them in some way or some form. Like, we'll do a dance class; one of my friends owns like a shoe boutique and we'll say, 'hey, we'll do a heels class and give away a pair of shoes at the end of the month, let's both promote it together'. We'll work together so that we can spend time in that atmosphere and still not feel like we have a bunch of work to do after hanging with each other."
Friends?
"I guess I kind of infuse that too. We'll watch YouTube sermons together and we'll read books together and talk about them because that's kind of just what space I'm in right now."
Exercise/Health?
"At the top of the day, [I] get it over with, just go ahead and do it. Because if it hits 12 and I have my makeup on and my hair done, sis is not throwing on a pair of track pants unless it's for dance class. So just getting it over with at the top of the morning is the best way and nothing in the world beats that shower after a weightlifting session. Nothing."
Do you cook or find yourself eating out?
Tee J (@hustleandnap)
"I'm not sure if it is my sense of me trying to adult and be frugal and I guess I'll know the more money I obtain, but, I much rather cook. Because I think, why am I going to spend $20, 30, 40, $50 on a meal and I want to get my song mixed or I want to go to dance class or I want to shoot something and I need to buy an outfit for it? Maybe I'll make the outfit, but I need to buy the fabric. To me, if that does not register. You mean to tell me I'm going to make a decision about food three times a day, sometimes more, and I could spend that money and then just do it again tomorrow? Or I can get a song mixed and put it on iTunes and it'd be on there forever."
Do you ever detox? What does that look like for you?
"There's this girl who wrote a book called detoxing your brain and she talks about how your brain can physically challenge your body to do certain things. I always think, let me start there. Getting a journal and writing everything down, that's me detoxing. I'm a letting all these thoughts out of my head so I don't have to store that. Your brain can only hold so much like storage in your phone; at one point, you're gonna have to put them in a cloud and tuck them somewhere else so that you don't lose them. So that's my form of detox is getting a journal or writing music."
What does success mean to you?
"Success is literally writing a goal down and being able to accomplish it. Whatever that goal is, whatever that amount of money is, whatever that standard is. Just being able to literally cross off my to-do lists at the end of the day, that's a successful day to me"
You can learn more about @Jazmine by following her Instagram and make sure to check out the 3-part visualization of her new single, "Ocean" on Youtube ASAP, sis!
Jazmine | Ocean - a serialized story | Part 1www.youtube.com
Featured image by Tee J (@hustleandnap).