solara silver

All of us are living in and through a powerful time in human history—a time of both evolutionary and revolutionary change. While it's certainly unsettling, please know there’s a deeper invitation hidden beneath and within these clouds. At present time, there are millions of individuals who have gone through several wash and spin cycles on the washing machine of life. They are in every country and community in the world. They are the ones who have stepped off or were kicked off the conveyer belt of conventional success and performance and had no other rational choice but to follow their inner wisdom and voice.  If this happens to you, please know you're not alone or that you somehow 'failed'. On the road of life we are all students and teachers helping each other to follow the inner-calling and knowing of our hearts.   By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

Social media has helped more of us notice and observe conservatism and its derivatives. From my experience, conservatism stems from a band of awareness (see Self-understanding ) that leads people to value superiority, safety, and control over anyone or anything else. Conservatism is a form of fear – a personal and cultural refusal to grow beyond the confines of belief. It could also be viewed as an indirect form of violence—a commitment to controlling others, especially women,  through  policy, ridicule, or shame.     The conservative stance is deeply bound to dogma, nationalism, extractive economies, power-over mechanisms, and with leaders who promote and perpetuate these mindsets and policies. What are they conserving? Unconditional love.   By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

You and me are influenced by everything inside and around us. Everything. The weather, people, and the cosmos all impact us in big and small ways.  If you’re aware of how the moon or Mars, or Venus, or Mercury influence  your energy and moods and what houses in your natal chart are most activated and when, this can help you decipher your own human riddle and life purpose, not to mention better understand your soul’s sacred journey and path.

My dad was a book person. He and we had books all over our home-- including a full set of encyclopedias.  For me, looking up stuff was a hobby and repeating facts a strange form of spoken art (lol). It took me a super long time to realize that facts and data are snapshots of yesterday-- artifacts of the past. They are useful. They matter. But they are not the whole picture of anything-- ever.   What's actual intelligence? Life. You. Your loved ones. Your children. Your pets. Nature. Our planet. How you connect to all the living things that matter to you. Sharing what you love.   The answers and wisdom are all in you-- in each of us. By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

Your level of self-awareness (consciousness) and self-understanding determines how much you see and understand about yourself and the world around you. Knowing where we're coming from is essential for helping us understand that when someone is arguing a side with only two options, they are operating from an ego-centric, conventional, or exclusionary world view. And that is a stage of human development, but there are more.  By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

When I was in graduate school I took a course titled Counseling the Culturally Different. Among countless technical considerations this class illuminated the power differentials inherent in the counseling relationship. But most importantly, the hidden culture and world view underneath it all. Despite my heritage and culture, as a white woman I had never before considered diversity as something that applied to me. However, I also understood that my obvious ignorance was not just mine—it was in the water we collectively drank and the politics and policies we created and upheld.   Discrimination (othering) is embedded in human history and still is a deeply polarizing topic. I know. I’ve lived it—but so have you—so have all of us. We all have a side, or were put on a side, or we picked a side in order to survive. We are all complicit. Accordingly, we can all be complicit in our collective healing. By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishi...

After my daughter's passing in 2018 life as I knew it ended. Period. And yet, as the days and weeks moved through me, new life, insights, and remembrances became a daily occurrence.  My body, nervous system, and brain were completely rewired-- updated somehow. Though I've always journaled, I had never written poems or even thought in poetic ways. My thinking and writing were normally mechanical, procedural, perhaps lifeless. And yet I suddenly found myself thinking and speaking in poetic ways. As a former academic and critical and 'serious thinker', the notion of writing soulful things felt ridiculous, even embarrassing. When I sent my draft of Until it happens to you to some of my colleagues, I was prepared for my fears to be validated. Instead, I was encouraged to publish it-- to share it.   Ordinary (below) was one of those fully-formed, downloads-- its punchline is not just mine, but yours too.  When the time comes when your beautiful body and mind are ...

Like many from my generation (GenXers), I’ve long understood that inner peace and outer justice are a single energetic thread. True peace is not derived from a strategic war plan, a fancy marketing campaign, or proclamations from outsiders who are not at peace with themselves—it is sourced from a powerful place within each of us.   If peace has to be kept by intimidation, coercion, or force it is not peace. These tactics are the classic hallmarks of obsolete and toxic programming designed to keep us docile and compliant. But consider for a moment all the ways you and I routinely apply these same conditional tactics to our lives: — “I’ll start “that” when “this” happens” — “I’ll treat myself to “that” after I suffer “this” long” --- “I can’t do “that” because that would be selfish”   Doing an ‘ in-turn’ is a radical act. It helps us to stop self-abandoning and outsourcing our safety and intelligence to external influences. Coming into a relationship with ourselves c...

To varying degrees all of us have access to spiritual intelligence or soul senses. When chosen and applied, these behaviors strengthen us from the inside-out and bolster our discernment and vitality.  What activates it/them? You . How do we apply it/them? Through our language, daily choices, and how we operate in our lives and at work. Awareness Acceptance Balance Compassion Contentment Creativity Empathy Equanimity Faith Forgiveness Generosity Graciousness Gratitude Humility Humor Inclusion Integrity Kindness Letting go Love Mindfulness Patience   Presence Reflection Respect Self-regulation Self-acceptance Serenity Solitude Surrender Stillness Tolerance Trust   from Unmasking | the courage to be yourself, Solara Publishing, 2026 By Mayra Porrata comments:  mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

Depending on your elemental nature (ei: your natal chart aspects/human design), you may or may not have good soft-skills. In particular, those of us with strong air or earth aspects are not as attuned to emotional intelligence -- the “feeling” stuff.   And so, I had to learn it and then teach it, and then re-learn it deeper and then teach it again….and now I’m writing about it, so that I can learn some more.  It took me about 30 years to realize that what we used to consider soft-skills  is simply social-emotional intelligence.   I’ve come to understand this too: emotional literacy and self-awareness  are not trivial or unimportant— they are self-mastery skills. Your mind is energy. Your body is energy. Your nervous system and its ability to pick up and decipher social-emotional information from self and others? Energetic self-mastery my friend. I’m still learning and re-learning how to use my own superpowers. How about you? By Mayra Porrata comments:...

There’s a bit of backlash against over-helping technologies— the kind of tech that assumes it knows better than you. It don’t. (lol). Last summer, I was nearly crushed by an oncoming truck on a two-lane rural road. I was behind a farm tractor and was waiting for the perfect time to pass it. When I changed lanes, my car decided I had somehow lost my mind—and it had to protect me by slowing my car – so much so-- that the oncoming truck was now within range and I had to slam my breaks and quickly accelerate in the middle of my lane change. I’m an experienced driver, but I was lucky.  Over-helping tech harms people every day—it is not intuitive – not respectful of human choice, consent, and sovereignty and maybe that’s the point. This kind of over-helping, over-reach is everywhere and more consumers are simply opting-out. Do you want me to write this for you? NO. Do you want us to design a website with our space-age blah, blah? NO. Do you want us to tell you how much sleep you didn...

Back in the day, when I was a young corporate project manager, I was asked to do a rotation in the education/training department of our company — a then Fortune 100 company. Having worked on a hugely successful technology transition for well over three years, the thought of shifting gears, which to me felt like a total downshift, felt like a slap in the face. Moving from the fast-moving and intoxicating world of technology to learn and teach “soft-skills” was not on my life bingo or career card. As a Capricorn moon (lol) and Aquarius sun, people matters were for other people—for the people managers, coaches and counselors of the world.   I didn’t know it then, but I was being schooled by life. I was being led. And though I protested and thrashed, I knew there was a deeper purpose for this career and life plot-twist of mine. My sense is that at this time in human history all of us are being schooled. While millions are locked into the fast-moving and intoxicating world of t...