(Photo credit: Regan Cameron/Marie Claire)

Sometimes a break can be a good thing.

In a new interview, Katy Perry explained that while she didn't want to break up with John Mayer earlier this year, it ultimately helped their relationship.

"It was like a splash of cold water to search inward on what was going on with me," she told Marie Claire in its January issue. "That is what let me to this new awakening, this realizing, if I don't do some self-love, I'm not going to be able to keep the love that I want."

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Perry, 29, used the time apart to finally move past her 2011 split from ex-husband Russell Brand. At the time it was happening, she explained, she wasn't able to fully cope.

"There were two weeks of my life after I found out the truth of my marriage where I was like, 'OK. All right. I can't feel this. This is too intense right now.'" she said. "I was, like, just eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos and drinking, and that's it."

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All her introspection worked. Now, she and Mayer, whom she called "a fantastic partner," are in a "rad, mature relationship," though she's not quite ready to have a family yet.

"I can't plan that far in advance," she said. "When I decide to have a family, I'll just want to be Mom for a little bit. [Brand] really wanted me to have children, and I knew I wasn't ready - I think it was a way of control. I think it was part of, If I have a kid, then I would have to sacrifice - I'd have to be home more. I really wanted to, but I knew I wasn't ready for it."