Katy Perry beautifully covers the January 2014 issue of Marie Claire. In the accompanying interview, the 29-year-old singer credits her ex-husband for introducing her to transcendental meditation and explains how she managed to get through the rough times accompanying a divorce.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

On having children: “I’m definitely not there yet, and I can’t plan that far in advance. When I decide to have a family, I’ll just want to be Mom for a little bit. [Russell 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. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let’s have a kid because we’re in love.”

On her difficult split from ex-husband Russell Brand: “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.’ I was, like, just eating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and drinking, and that’s it.”

On practicing Transcendental Meditation: “the best thing I got out of my previous relationship, because it was introduced to me via my ex-husband.”

On on-again-off-again boyfriend John Mayer: “I took a break from my boyfriend, not one that I wanted. It was like a splash of cold water to search inward on what was going on with me. 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. I still needed to deal with all of my ex-husband stuff. I hadn’t. It’s almost like if I kept talking about it, it would seem like I actually cared about it. I don’t.”