Kelsea Ballerini's life looks much different today than it did a year ago. She's divorced with a new man in her life. She just finished a major headlining tour and spent time opening for Shania Twain. She appeared on "Saturday Night Live," and she released one of the most critically acclaimed EPs of the year with her "Rolling Up The Welcome Mat" AND "Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good)." The latter is the deluxe version of the EP that Ballerini started writing as she processed the unraveling of her marriage and divorce.

Both EPs are out now.

Ballerini chatted with SiriusXM’s Macie Banks, who hosts the mornings on SiriusXM’s The Highway, about how surviving the emotional rollercoaster of the last year shifted her approach to songwriting.

 "I want to live a life to write about," Ballerini said. "I've been so busy since September when 'Subject [To Change]' came out, and I want some space to take inventory of my life and enjoy it."

The Knoxville, Tennessee, native said the last six or seven months have left her feeling really accomplished - something she hasn't allowed herself to feel in a long time.

"To be able to go, 'I'm gonna step away for a second and be with my friends and my family and people I love and be in this new house that I love with my dog who I love, and I just, I want to live a life to write about," she reiterated. "I think when new music comes, it'll be because I was really inspired by whatever I'm doing for the next few months."

She said she has "gently started" the writing process but that she doesn't have a timeline as she has other unannounced projects in the works. After all, "Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good)" is less than one week old. 

"Just going back to the idea that this was not a record that was made for anything other than making it," she explained. "I didn't think about it being played anywhere. I didn't think about where it fit. I didn't think about if it rhymed perfectly. I didn't think about the flow of the song being a proper Nashville verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. None of that mattered for this because that wasn't the point."

When the EP was first released nearly one year ago, it came on the heels of her commercial country album "Subject To Change." She never intended to play the EP's songs live, but fans have demanded it. 

"It's been a lesson for me, too, on moving forward with how I make music," Ballerini said. "Do I shift the way I make music now and not think so much about all the things that I'm probably like thinking too much about and just make music, you know?"