The Five Stages of Waking Up: Bargaining

Welcome to week three in our series called "Waking Up," the process by which we become aware of our conditioning and begin to make conscious choices about who we are and how we live. Bargaining is what we do when we aren't quite yet ready to face who we see in the mirror, the choices we've made, and the consequences we've incurred. Bargaining is how we lessen the blow. Through bargaining, we are able to take small steps forward with what we perceive to be our "dignity" intact. Our work through this stage of Waking Up is to slowly, consciously allow ourselves to face who we are without shame. Bargaining buys us time but it keeps us from seeing the scope of our reality. This week, we learn what it is, how it functions, and how to get past it.