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upper-limit-problem

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Upper Limit Problem (ULP)

What it is

Katie Hendricks has said that “everything is an upper limit” — that is, anytime “something happens” and we’re triggered back into personas, it’s just us upper limiting. — Manual v3, p. 46

The Upper Limit Problem is Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks’s name for the unconscious pattern of self-contraction that arises when a practitioner expands beyond a familiar internal limit of joy, success, love, or aliveness. The body hits an old ceiling — set in early life — and the system quietly engineers a return to the familiar level.

In the Colwell Practice framing, every move out of essence and back into a persona is, at its root, an upper limit. The experience of essence becomes too unfamiliar, too vulnerable, too good — and the nervous system protests by contracting.

In Conscious Loving, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks tell us that, when we’re doing this conscious work, there are no real problems anymore. Except one: Feeling too good. That is, when we expand into Creative Brain, states like Appreciation, Joy, Love, Peace, we reach the limits of how good we’re willing to feel. Like a fuse blowing, we suddenly shut down, pick a fight, numb out, or retreat into old habits. — Manual v3, p. 46

How upper limiting shows up

A familiar internal limit has been exceeded — and one or more of the following happens, usually unconsciously:

  • Starting an argument or picking a fight.
  • Getting sick, hurt, or otherwise indisposed.
  • Forgetting something important.
  • Introducing a “problem.”
  • Collapsing into worry, criticism, or blame.
  • Returning into a familiar persona — especially a contracted one.
  • Numbing out (food, screens, substances, busyness).
  • Withdrawing from intimacy or connection.

The practitioner often does not notice they are doing it. The move back to the familiar feels justified because the old story explains the contraction — “of course I’m angry, look at what they did.”

Why this happens — and why it’s not a failure

This is not a failure. It’s a signal that we’re expanding — and that our nervous system needs help tolerating more expansiveness. The work, then, becomes learning how to remain in essence, even as our old wiring protests. How to stretch our capacity for joy, connection, and presence — without shutting it down. — Manual v3, p. 46

An upper limit means you exceeded the previous ceiling. That is expansion. The contraction afterward is the nervous system recalibrating. The practice is not to never upper-limit. The practice is to:

  1. Notice that you’re upper-limiting.
  2. Stretch the body’s capacity for the expanded state by returning to it.
  3. Over time, the ceiling rises.

The move

There is no single-step process — but the moves are well-named:

  1. Recognize the upper limit. The first time you can say “I’m just hitting my upper limit” instead of “this is real” is the move. Recognition itself often releases the contraction.

  2. Use SEW on the contracted sensation. The body is holding something. sew meets it directly.

  3. Return to the expanded state on purpose. Read your manifesto. Feel the appreciation that triggered the upper limit. Stay there a little longer this time.

  4. Stretch the capacity. This is the Big Leap move in Hendricks’s framing. Over many cycles, the body learns to tolerate more joy, more love, more aliveness without contracting.

  5. Choose conscious contraction when needed. The Six Facets Self-Evaluation includes the prompt “I understand Upper Limits and choose conscious contraction” (Manual v3, p. 117). Sometimes the practitioner is genuinely full and needs to rest, not to keep stretching. Discerning conscious contraction from upper limiting is part of the practice.

Facets served

  • facet-aligning-with-essence — primary. The Hendricks framing places ULP work at the heart of living in essence over time.
  • facet-getting-unstuck — recognizing an upper limit is one of the most common unstuck moves available to a practitioner expanding their range.
  • facet-living-big-life — the practice of expanding the ceiling is what makes a “big life” possible.
  • experiencing-your-feelings — many upper-limit “ceiling” sensations are unfelt feelings; the move-through often releases the ceiling.
  • personas — the persona enforcing the upper limit can be interviewed directly (see persona-interviews).
  • sew — the engine for any in-the-moment ULP release.
  • inner-map — the upper register (Appreciation, Joy, Love, Peace) is where upper limits get triggered. The map itself shows the territory.
  • manifesto — reading your manifesto is one of the most reliable returns to the expanded state.

Source and attribution

Primary source:

  • raw/The Colwell Practice Immersion Manual-v3 with cover.pdf, Section III (From Projection to Essence), Essence chapter, p. 46. Also referenced in Six Facets Self-Evaluation, Manual v3, p. 117 (“I understand Upper Limits and choose conscious contraction”).

Secondary source:

  • raw/2025 ILC Version AT Master Curriculum.docx.md — references ULPs as a topic across multiple weeks; Playing with ULPs is listed as a Level II applied tool.

Lineage: Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks. The most complete long-form description is in Gay Hendricks’s The Big Leap (2009) and in Conscious Loving. The framing “everything is an upper limit” is Kathlyn Hendricks.

Status notes

canonical — promoted from needs-export 2026-05-25 from the Colwell Practice Immersion Manual v3 (Section III, p. 46) and the Six Facets Self-Evaluation (p. 117).

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