The pop star reflected on the cause of her and Bloom's breakup in 2017 on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast ... admitting she wasn't fully in the relationship when they first linked up in 2016.

She added ... "I was fresh out of a relationship, and I was just like, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I need to go swim in a different pond,’ but I had yet to do a lot of real work."

According to Katy, she was a fan of playing "cat and mouse games" with her significant others ... noting she used to get off on the drama.

However, KP noted the actor started attending the Hoffman Institute during the initial stages of their relationship ... where he did a lot of self-work. After the process, he came back and wasn't open to playing the games anymore -- so KP got bored, and and decided to step away from the relationship.

However, Katy credits this time apart as helping her grow into the woman she is today ... as she too attended the Hoffman Institute and learned a lot about herself.

Watch the video ... she continues -- "I had a really tough year, and I finally went to Hoffman towards the end of that year that we were separated, and then I got the tools and spoke the same language, and it changed my life."

In fact, the singer said this work "saved [her] life," as she believed she "would be dead without it."

Katy and Orlando eventually reconciled, getting engaged in 2019 and welcoming their daughter, Daisy Dove, the following year.