“We Can Still Stand Strong in the Face of Oppression”

Cyndi Dale on being called to respond to violence with peace

Intuitive energy healer and author Cyndi Dale and The Daily Shift editor Pamela Hill Nettleton both live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.


Pamela: How do we navigate through and recover from the brutality and desensitization to violence that so many of us have witnessed here in Minnesota and in the nation and world?

Cyndi: My strong philosophy is it’s on each of us to ask whatever we talk to — our higher power, our higher self, our creator, the divine, our own heart — “What am I to do?”

I think everybody’s called to do something. I would be the last person to come up with what somebody’s supposed to do.

I’m scared of crowds. I get overwhelmed, so I have joined small protests. I give money to restaurants that feed people for free, I drive over with tip money for the servers scared to come to work. There were some seniors in front of their home the other day, and I just joined them. I went down to the tribute site for Renée Goode and Alex Pretti. There is a huge rally coming up this weekend, and I’m attending one of the smaller ones in my neighborhood to stand in community and to also not feel overwhelmed.

Prayer is worthwhile, as long as we’re not spiritually bypassing. Love, for many of us, has to also equate with some kind of action. And it’s very easy to find action steps.

Churches are fundraising for immigrants who can’t leave their house and work. Signs in the yard are bringing people together in my neighborhood. I’d say half the people voted for Trump in my neighborhood, but now all the Roman Catholics on my block are incensed, and have notices like, “ICE OUT” in their yards.

Pamela: How do we safeguard our energy? How do we avoid getting depleted? How do we take care of each other and ourselves?

Cyndi: We can use our own chakras, because I’m a chakra person. We can pull from what is the mysterious and the ineffable, and still stand strong in the face of oppression. We can surround ourselves with the Divine to be safe, and emanate our own divinity from the center of every chakra while sharing our truths. During this time, I’ve altered the architecture of my own energetic field, inserting more gold (“God” power), and silver (deflects negativity and attracts higher messages), and pink (ability to command for change.) We have the right to update our own energetics as needed. If we start to get burned out, it’s important to nourish our own inner fire before directing more of our fire toward the good fight.

Pamela: I have friends who drive other peoples’ kids to school, who stand around the preschool in a circle.

Cyndi: I have friends doing that, too. It takes a lot of courage. You have to find your own safety level.

I know what it takes for me to be balanced. One discipline I have undertaken is to only look at the news just once a day. And then, I read through five different outlets, so I get a bigger picture. And I know my outlets have very balanced approaches.

I get my exercise every day, I do my work every day, I talk to a friend every day, I haven’t let go of any of my way of living, even with all this.

The other thing I do, too, and I think it’s important, is I feel my feelings about what’s happening. When I went to the memorial site, I just cried. I cried all day.

And then I pick a few outlets that I support with money or time. On my personal Facebook, there are a few people I really love what they say, so I do go on every day and remark to keep them supported. I know many of these individuals — those with the loudest voices — are getting attacked, and I make sure that I give them reinforcement.

I think we can all find something to do. If we’re doing something, I think we’re not going to be as stressed, because we’re putting our energy somewhere.

For instance, there’s a man in town who runs a towing company, he tows the cars that are abandoned from ICE arrests when they pull people out of cars. He tows them and stores them for free for the families. We can all contribute something that reflects our graciousness.

Pamela: How do we elevate interactions and conversations so we can face fear and violence with more peace, and work with our own fearful and anxious energies?

Cyndi: You know, I think many individuals who initially supported the policies and politicians who are causing and reinforcing the psychological and physical violence have done so because of trauma. Basically, they projected their own inner angst into the populace to follow a leadership that was stoking their inner dramas. The problem with subconscious trauma, however, is that it is survival- and tribal-oriented. If these individuals change their minds, they lose their tribe, even though that tribe is now causing horror, war, fear, racism, and sexism.

Making a statement like, “I made a mistake,” or, “I’ve changed my mind” (although Joe Rogan is doing this!) also stirs old shame and guilt. It takes a really big person, a person with a healthy ego, to say “I wish I hadn’t done that” or “I’d make a different decision now.”

Knowing this, I usually try to avoid psychological arguments and instead speak about the darkness underneath the current violent and violating paradigms. My theme is when the dark rises, so does the light. I like to talk about how we can draw together in the face of oppression. It doesn’t need to matter who we voted for, or why we voted for somebody. It’s about how we think now, and if we’re willing to stand up to leaders with no principles and instead represent goodness and justice.

Sometimes all I’ve done is ask individuals what kind of world they want for their children or their children’s children. I try to abstain about making a discussion about liberal versus conservative, or Democrat or Republican, and place it instead in the realms of Constitutional rights, civil rights, and people being safe. I think we can come together about that.

Cyndi explores Interdimensional Psychic Healing in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

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Cyndi Dale is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and intuitive healer. Her groundbreaking books on chakras and intuition include The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy and Advanced Chakra Healing. She’s been a natural intuitive since she was young, works worldwide as an intuitive coach and energy healer, and is passionate about helping people open their “essential energy” — the powers and perspectives unique to them. She believes that once an individual understands their own essence, they can tap into the energies of and beyond the world.