solara silver

As an Aquarian woman, it took me a long time to understand that my deep humanitarian sensitivities and emotional intelligence are not the same thing. From my experience, emotional intelligence (emotional availability) is an activation that enables us to sense or perceive beyond the confines of our mind. This sensory enhancement provides a new language that leads to a broader and deeper knowing, and therefore an expanded intelligence in us.  What some call ‘woke’, commonly used as an insult or derogatory slur, is nothing more than a God-given power and grace that’s available to us all. This activation can occur anytime we’re open to it. For me it was introduced in small doses via friends, colleagues, and family, and then fully received as a heavenly zip-file sometime after my daughter died. Needless to say, this has been a profound process and ongoing deepening of my own humanity --  a revelatory process that has become my new normal and way of life. If you’re not...

We encounter many bridges on the road of life; some we only cross once and some we have to go back and forth on until we master the fear, the lesson, and the gift that can only be found on the other side.  By Mayra Porrata | comments: mayra@solarapublishing.com ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC Photo credit: Mari Peterson

As we learn more about the way our world and universe actually works, polarized cultural bands become increasingly obsolete.  Polarized cultural bands are thought forms that pit one thing against another. The either-or mentality or fear programs all of us were taught to operate from. These are persistent bands of consciousness that exclude the intelligence of life/nature/energy/God and of our own human hearts. Ideas like  business/profits over people/humanity, this religion is the one and only, these are the good guys/saviors, this political party over the other (and vice-versa) keep us operating in a particular band of existence that limits our God-given gifts.   Although it may appear as such, nothing in God's universe is one-sided. It is, we are, multi-sided --- mind, body, and spirit.   Anytime we notice ourselves arguing with reality or with our own deeper wisdom, that's a symptom that part of us is estranged or in exile. Bring yourself back into sani...

Culture tells men that pain, fear, and anger can only be tempered through control and power-over tactics.  And so they learn to externalize and weaponize their confusion to prove and protect their masculinity.  Se lf-awareness and honoring grief are radical forms of love for brave and wise men. This is one of the most powerful and valuable lessons my dad taught me.    By Mayra Porrata | comments: mayra@solarapublishing.com  ©2026 Solara Publishing, LLC

The desire to understand how you think, what you know, and how you know you know , is a simple way to describe metacognition. Another way to say is this: “the awareness of your own thought processes, including its evaluation.” Relative to culture, the simplest application of metacognition is to ask yourself: “how’s that working out for you?” This kind of question ushers us into a tender investigation of our beautiful selves as the living, fluid, and creative forms we each are. As a former educator, project manager, and life-long student, I’ve always valued the process of self-inquiry, dot-connecting, and evaluating outcomes. That’s why for anyone who's analytical in nature or enjoys using their mind to solve puzzles, I encourage the use of journals and contemplations on gratitude and self-awareness.  But...there are other ways to know that don't require any analysis; only your presence, awareness and love.   Recommended journals: Grateful – 30-day self-care journal ...