The biggest barrier to Awareness is our unwillingness to see and accept a truth that causes us to feel pain or that would imply we need to make a change that is painful to make. Denial is a coping mechanism when dealing with a reality that you cannot change and this is often learned in childhood, as we are often unable to change our childhood situations.  Teal Swan explains that now that we can change, we are often left with this coping mechanism when seeing something is painful or when seeing something implies change.