Bachelor Nation fans are watching Serene and Clayton’s love story unfold on this season of “The Bachelor,” and earlier this week we got to witness their very first one-on-one date.

Now, Serene is stopping by the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast to discuss her bond with Clayton, share more about their one-on-one date, and reveal why it was tough for her to open up at first.

Serene talked to co-hosts Bryan Abasolo and Mike Johnson about her one-on-one and where she and Clayton were when she received that date card.

The elementary school teacher shared, “It was a really well-rounded date. It felt like we had progressed so much by the end of it. I had that one-on-one after we’d already been filming for a bit and we had been on group dates already, so I felt like we had already established a really fun relationship. I just wanted to see if we could have a deeper connection and if we could connect on more than just being goofy together. Those conversations started to progress, so that’s why I was so excited to get the one-on-one.”

She added, “We all know time is so limited because there are so many people. At the end of that night, I felt really good about where we were at and just really excited. I was really thankful he listened to me the way that he did. Clayton is a really active listener.”

Serene discussed how Clayton thought she was holding back a little bit and at the time, she said she felt like she was being so open, but now watching it back, she understands where he was coming from.

The Bachelor Nation star revealed that she had some walls up and “Some of that came from losing my cousin. I was getting to have these crazy, incredible life experiences like traveling that she’ll never get to have. We’d be having all this fun, but I would have this wall up sometimes because my wheels were always turning with other things that I couldn’t always push to the side.”

Thankfully, she said Clayton was a great listener, noting that, “He made it so easy to talk to him, though. It was never a question of if I could open up to him, it was just that it was deep stuff and I wanted to find the right time to share. On the one-on-one, he asked me and it felt really good for it to be so well received by him because it was a lot.”

Mike asked Serene if she had any advice for their listeners who also struggle with opening up about their emotions and she shared some really valuable tips.

Serene said, “For me it’s been about learning to say what I need from the people around me in my support system. I have been working on letting people know how I’m feeling. Growing up in a house with so many kids, I was so observant of everything else going on, so the most helpful thing to me is to just slow down and share how I’m feeling.”

She went on, saying, “It sounds like such a small thing, but you can’t expect people to understand what you’re going through if you don’t tell them.”

Mike and Bryan thanked Serene for the insight, saying that they know her opening up will help many other people.

To hear more of Serene’s conversation on the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast, check out the full episode below.