2020 has not been easy for anyone, but especially Carly Pearce. The “Next Girl” singer was forced to come off the road — her favorite place to be — because of COVID-19, and divorced her husband, Michael Ray, after only eight months of marriage. That might be enough to knock anybody down, but Carly Pearce isn’t just anybody. The always-optimistic star has found a silver lining, even amid so much trouble, during the challenging year.

“I’ve had a lot of things happen to me this year, but the thing that continues to surprise me is how strong I am and how much country music is a healer,” Carly told New Beauty. “I dove straight into music and I truly think it saved me this year.”

Carly is working on new music, but she is also using this year to take some much-needed time for herself, which is normally a rarity.

“I love to read, so I have been doing a lot of that,” Carly revealed. “I’ve also been diving into writing and recording new music, which has been super therapeutic for me.”

The past several months might have been especially challenging, but the 30-year-old is only focused on the future, not the past.

“I feel like if you believe in you and you choose to do what’s best for you and you just continue to pour into the people that you love and work hard and believe in you, it’s amazing how a few short months can completely 360,” Carly revealed on The Kelleigh Bannen Show on Apple Music Country.  “And I will tell you it has done that for me. It has 360-ed, not one 180-ed, 360-ed and gone, ‘Oh, I’m okay. I’m okay. And I’m excited. And I’m excited for music.’ And I feel like country music, I’ve always run to country music when I’m sad, and more than ever I ran to it during this time full-speed and it gave me what I needed.”

Download “Next Girl” at CarlyPearce.com.