"I feel like sometimes you can be so private and so guarded, you prevent yourself from really discovering yourself or things period," she told Radio.com. "So I'm in the mental state of not overthinking things, living my life for me, letting go and letting things be what they are. And I'm learning that that's the best thing that I could have possibly done."

On her recently released self-titled album, Ciara worked with her boyfriend, the auto-tuned garbled rapper Future. Though it's not the first time she's worked with someone she was dating, it is the first time that she's willing to talk about it. Once she got in the studio with her beau, she realized how easy it was to balance the personal side and the professional side of their relationship.

"Your love is there. Your love is love," she explained. "It's pure and it's what it is. You just do what organically feels right creatively. And if anything, you have such a special relationship that is love based, it kind of just makes the whole music making process more special in itself."

Ciara says that her first single "Body Party," which was co-produced by Future and Mike Will Made It, the 24-year-old producer who helped Miley Cyrus find her sound on "We Can't Stop," was one of the easiest songs she's ever made. The three organically came up with the old throwback, fun feeling of the sexy slow jam that samples Ghost Town DJ's 1996 hit, "My Boo." Ciara says the track hearkens back to a time when "guys were in the club and weren't too cool to slow dance."

Nearly a decade later, "Body Party" is the grown-up answer to her first single "Goodies" off her 2004 debut album of the same name. "'Goodies' was like me saying, 'You can't get the goodies. They stay in the jar,' Ciara explained. "There's still a little of that energy on 'Body Party." You want to give your goodies to the right person. But now that I'm a woman I'm more in touch with my sexuality than when I was younger. Some of my sexuality that I share through music is probably more clear. I'm a bit more aware of that side of me now."

While some artists find it hard to write a decent song while in love, Ciara says it was the main inspiration for her new record. But fans shouldn't assume every song was written about Future. The singer says the album was actually inspired by the many components of love. There's sexual exploration on "Read My Lips," the you're-better-off-without-him feeling after a much needed breakup on the Nicki Minaj- assisted "I'm Out" and undying love on "Where You Go," which was originally Future's track that he not so willingly gave to his girl. "I ginked it from him," she said with a smile. Future did agree to appear on the song though, using his unique singing voice to complement Ciara's sweet vocals.