Barkley, 30, made a surprise switch to newly promoted Luton last summer following a brief spell in France.
A move to Kenilworth Road has seen him play the most league minutes he has in a season for seven years, and led to talk about an England recall.
"I feel like I'm in a good place again," Barkley told BBC Sport.
"I don't have to worry about anything else other than playing games and enjoying training and enjoying my matches and trying to help my team do as good as possible."
Joining boyhood club Everton at the age of 11, Barkley made his debut for the club in 2011 when he was 18 and comparisons to Wayne Rooney naturally followed.
Roberto Martinez, Barkley's manager at Goodison Park between 2013 and 2016, said the midfielder was "born to play football" and he featured in all three of England's matches at the 2014 World Cup.
A £15m move to Chelsea in 2018 was described as a "fresh start" but Barkley left the Blues by mutual consent at the start of the 2022-23 season after just 100 appearances for the club.
After leaving Stamford Bridge, Sir Dave Brailsford convinced Barkley to join Nice, who are owned by Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos company.
But after just nine starts in 27 appearances in Ligue 1 last season, Barkley returned to England with Luton after their promotion to the Premier League.
Speaking to Football Focus, Barkley opened up on his form for Rob Edwards' side this season, playing in a deeper role and his hopes of an England recall.
"I learned quite a lot [at Nice] to be honest, even though I felt like I should have played a lot more than I did there.
"I learned a lot off the ball. In France, they work hard on the defensive side of the game, really aggressive pressing.
"Some tackles I saw in training were dangerous, even some of the youngsters go right through the older players and didn't even pick them up.
"I just felt like I had a lot to prove [before signing for Luton] and I missed my football and playing games.
"I feel like I've gone back in time now. I've not really played [as] much in the past three or four years as I feel like I deserved.
"The manager has helped me a lot since he came in, with his trust and communication. He's got great man-management skills, great togetherness and he's a great man as well."
Now aged 30 and with more than 250 Premier League games under his belt, Barkley has found recent success as a deeper-lying midfielder than he once was. This role is similar to one he played in youth football before breaking his leg on England Under-19 duty which led to him becoming an attacking midfielder.
"Coming to Luton, my intentions were not playing this role. But because of certain injuries, I've filled in at that role and it's worked out so well for me. I knew I could play in that position, but sometimes all it takes is a manager to trust you in a certain role.
"When I was younger, I was more of a holding midfielder, making tackles and similar to how I'm playing now but still taking some risks.
"Then once I broke my leg and came back, I had no confidence in tackling or leaving my leg in for challenges. It took me a couple of years because every time I saw someone go in for a 50-50, I thought someone could have broken their leg.
"Of course it affected me mentally, so I got moved further forward into more attacking positions because my decision-making when I was younger wasn't as good as it is now. That comes with experience."
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