Rose Cousins touring new album 'Natural Conclusion' in Regina and Saskatoon

Singer-songwriter Rose Cousins says she's always trusted her own compass.

For that reason, she wasn't overlyworried about taking a break when she started feeling burnedout in 2013.

"I was just tired in a way that I hadn't been before and just took a hard look at the fact that maybe I wasn't taking the greatest care of myself as a human being," Cousins said in an interview with CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend.

Cousins took the time to focus on her passion forphotography. When she hit the road againit wasforcreative reasons, nottouring.

A broken arm also forced the artistto slow down. Eventually, she started working on new songs with other artists and revisiting old ones she had set aside.

Moments of realization

Four years later, Cousins is back on the road to tour an album she says shows a deeper level of vulnerability and contemplation than her previous work.

It's aptly titled Natural Conclusion, and Cousins said it was centred around relationships and moments of realization.

"Where you realize that you are dragging something around that you don't need to in the song Chain," she explained.

"Or a moment where you've made a decision and you realize that you actually lost something, along the way, in order to have what you wanted, which is in the song Freedom."

Cousins said she had come to the realization that it takes a lot of work "just to be alive," adding that there are also songs of hope and acceptance on the new album.

Finding comfort in fate

Although she said willful decisions were a factor in the outcome of things, Cousins believes fate plays a role as well.

"I rest knowing that things will come to their natural conclusion," she said.

"And even though sometimes that conclusion is the end of something, it is still how it was meant to be, and there is comfort in that somewhere."

Rose Cousins is performing at the Artesian in Regina on March 11 and at the Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon on March 12.