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Riding the Waves: Emotional Wellbeing as the Heart of Healing

Explore how emotional wellbeing forms the foundation for healing and connection. In this heartfelt reflection, The Human Array founder Carrie Allen shares her personal journey through emotional reparenting, motherhood, and the power of naming emotions — and why learning to feel is essential for true wellbeing.


Podcast titled "From Meltdowns to Breakthroughs..." by The Great Connect. Colorful cover art. Discusses emotional wellness. 18 min 27 sec.

Emotional wellbeing isn't just about feeling good. It's about learning to feel, period.


In a recent episode of The Great Connect podcast, Carrie Allen, founder of The Human Array, opened up about the emotional terrain we’re rarely taught to navigate, yet deeply shaped by. Through stories from her own life and motherhood, she painted a picture of what it means to re-learn emotional expression as an adult—and why it matters more than ever.


The Moment That Changed Everything


It started with a meltdown. Not hers, but her three-year-old son’s. As she sat beside him on the floor, his face red and his small body shaking with sobs, Carrie suddenly realized that she wasn’t just comforting her child. She was confronting a generational void.


Like many in her generation, she grew up without real tools for naming, navigating, or even acknowledging emotions. The message, spoken or not, was clear: keep it together, stay positive, move on. But in that quiet, vulnerable moment with her son, something deeper surfaced.


She saw how natural it was for children to fully feel their emotions. To express them without shame. To let their emotions move through them. And she realized how much of that gets unlearned in adulthood. That moment became a mirror and a turning point. It revealed something profound...


Emotional wellbeing is not the same as mental wellbeing. It’s not about fixing thoughts or achieving calm. It’s about being able to feel, name, and move emotions through the body. It’s about presence, permission, and practice.


And it’s foundational to everything else.


I remember sitting with my three-year-old son during a meltdown and saying, 'You know what, buddy, I don't know how to do these emotions either, but we're going to figure it out together.' That was transformative for me. —Carrie Allen, Founder of The Human Array

Woman hugging a child in cozy sweaters, set against a soft, white brick background. The mood is warm and affectionate.

Reparenting the Emotional Self


For much of her life, Carrie clung to joy and silver linings. She learned early on that positivity was prized, and discomfort—especially emotional discomfort—was something to avoid, downplay, or fix. Gratitude became a reflex, a shield she instinctively reached for whenever sadness, anger, or fear crept in. But in chasing the light, she often bypassed the full emotional spectrum, leaving parts of herself unseen, unheard, and unprocessed.


It wasn’t until she became a parent that the pattern cracked open. Watching her children move through emotions with raw honesty and without hesitation, she saw the truth: they weren’t doing anything wrong. They were feeling. Fully and instinctively. And she wasn’t equipped to meet them there. That realization led her to the concept and practice of reparenting.


Reparenting is a process where an adult actively provides themselves with the care, support, and understanding they may have lacked in their childhood. It involves addressing unmet emotional, physical, and psychological needs that arose from past experiences. Reparenting aims to heal past wounds, foster personal growth, and develop emotional resilience by nurturing the "inner child". 


Reparenting the emotional self meant learning how to feel in real time, not just in hindsight. Sitting with discomfort instead of rushing to solve it. And noticing when she wanted to correct or distract her children from their feelings — and choosing, instead, to sit beside them, offering presence without pressure.


This process was, and continues to be, deeply uncomfortable. Carrie describes it as "learning a new emotional language", one that doesn’t prioritize politeness over truth, or control over connection.


Her children, in their emotional clarity, became unexpected teachers, showing her that emotional expression isn’t a problem to fix, but a language to learn. Through them, she’s learning how to slow down, feel more deeply, and hold space — both for them and for herself.


I didn't learn anything about emotions growing up, and now I need to learn it — to reparent myself, so I can understand these emotions and change things for my kids and the next generation. —Carrie Allen, Founder of The Human Array

Woman joyfully hugging two children at a sandy beach. Bright sky, casual clothing, and playful mood. Kids smiling and laughing.

Learning to Name the Feeling


Another transformative moment came through her husband’s quiet, grounding presence. In a moment when she felt overwhelmed and disconnected from her own feelings, he gently helped her recognize what was really happening inside. Not irritation. Not stress. Anger.


It was a feeling she had spent years swallowing, smoothing over with “I’m fine” and silver linings. But that simple act of being seen and supported as she named the feeling cracked something open.


It was a revelation: language wasn’t just a tool for communication, it was a bridge to healing. Giving emotions a name gave them shape, gave her power. It allowed her to feel without being consumed.


Through this process, she began to understand that expressing emotions doesn’t make them bigger. It makes them move.


When emotions are acknowledged and allowed to flow through the body, their intensity softens. But when they’re denied or suppressed, they linger, building pressure beneath the surface or embedding themselves in the body in ways that can lead to chronic stress, disconnection, or illness.


It's a core, important part of learning how to be a human. This experience, this energy in motion, emotion, moves through us. —Carrie Allen, Founder of The Human Array

Woman gestures passionately while speaking to a man outdoors. She's wearing a plaid shirt and gray jacket. Trees in the blurred background.

Astrology and Emotional Architecture


As someone with a Cancer moon, Carrie’s emotional sensitivity was always close to the surface, but not always welcome. Like many, she was taught to prioritize logic, productivity, and composure over vulnerability and feeling.


But as she began embracing her astrological blueprint, something shifted. She stopped seeing her emotional depth as a liability and started recognizing it as a superpower.


Leaning into her Cancer moon helped her understand her innate need to feel, nurture, and connect emotionally. Not just with others, but with herself. It gave her permission to soften, unravel, and explore emotions she’d long tucked away.


What followed was a wave of profound emotional clearing: sobbing in the shower without apology, trembling as old shame left her body, letting her tears be the medicine they are. She realized that her body knew exactly what to do. It wasn’t broken. It was wise. All it needed was permission to feel, to express, to release.


My body has been processing and purging emotions buried within it. The more I can process what's stuck, the more I can clear, so that future emotions don't get stuck. It's about allowing them to flow through. —Carrie Allen, Founder of The Human Array

Aerial view of ocean waves with golden sunlight reflecting on the water, creating a serene and shimmering effect.


Emotions Are Meant to Flow: Why Emotional Wellbeing Comes First


To Carrie, emotions are like water: fluid, forceful, and cleansing. When allowed to move freely, they carry us toward clarity and connection. But when resisted, they stagnate, overwhelm, or quietly weigh us down. Learning to ride the waves became a turning point in her healing.


It's a shift that taught her something essential: emotional wellbeing isn’t just one piece of the wellness puzzle — it’s the foundation. It’s the soil from which everything else grows. Mental clarity, physical vitality, fulfilling relationships, spiritual connection, and beyond.


Emotional wellbeing is a key component to our overall wellbeing. —Carrie Allen, Founder of The Human Array

And it’s not just a personal journey. It’s a collective one. When one person learns to feel and express emotions in a healthy way, it reshapes every space they’re in.


This is the heart of The Human Array, a community built for people doing the brave work of feeling again. With trauma-informed coaches, energy workers, emotional guides, and more, it’s a space where no one has to go it alone.


Looking for support on your emotional wellbeing journey? Explore The Human Array’s community offerings and Marketplace to connect with someone who gets it. And stay tuned for future episodes exploring the wider dimensions of wellbeing.

 


More Free Resources + Ways to Keep Exploring


 
 
 

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