Not Just Breaking Through Your Glass Ceiling Raising It (And Your Floor Too)

Let me introduce you to a concept that completely shifted how I understand personal growth:

We all have a ceiling and a floor.

Transformational coach Mandy Morris explains it like this: we don’t just operate at one level , We oscillate between two unconscious limits:

• Your ceiling: the highest you allow yourself to rise

• Your floor: the lowest you’re willing to tolerate

Most people focus on breaking through the ceiling (success, money, visibility, love, confidence). But the floor is just as important — because the floor determines what you normalize, accept, and survive.

Let’s talk about both.

The Floor: Your Level of Pain Tolerance

Your floor is the level of discomfort, disrespect, or pain you will tolerate — your “this is fine” zone.

And whew… my floor used to be way too low.

I tolerated:

• abusive relationships

• boundary violations

• not speaking up

• abandoning myself to keep the peace

And I know I’m not alone here.

When you’re stuck at a low floor, your nervous system adapts. You normalize what should never have been normal. You tell yourself, “It’s not that bad,” even when it’s absolutely that bad.

And when life hits hard? That floor becomes where you collapse.

Sometimes we wallow. Sometimes we doomscroll. Sometimes we eat half the fridge. Sometimes (my personal favorite), we isolate and throw ourselves a full-blown pity party:

“Woe is me. The universe doesn’t support me. Nothing ever works out for me.”

Logically, I know that’s an old program. But in the moment, it can feel like a whole-body tornado.

The “Sky Is Falling” Syndrome

Before menopause (yes, I’m at that age — thank you very much), the day before my cycle was always dramatic.

It felt like:

“THE SKY IS FALLING. Everything is terrible. My life is a disaster.”

Then the next day I’d get my period and be like:

“Oh… the sky isn’t falling. I was just hormonal.”

That’s part of being human. We have so many variables influencing our emotional state day-to-day:

• hormones

• sleep

• nutrition

• moon phases (yes, I said it)

• other people’s energy

• the content we consume

• stress levels

That is a LOT to regulate… while also living a full life.

This is why your floor matters. Because if your floor is low, you’ll repeatedly fall into the same spirals — and you’ll believe they’re just “who you are.”

They’re not.

The Ceiling: Your Upper Limit Problem

Now let’s talk about the ceiling.

Your ceiling is the invisible barrier you hit when things start going too well.

It’s that moment where you begin rising, expanding, creating — and suddenly your system goes:

“Wait… this feels unsafe.”

So instead of continuing upward, you self-sabotage.

You hesitate.
You procrastinate.
You pick a fight.
You shrink.
You hide.
You doubt yourself.
You burn it down.

The ceiling usually sounds like:

• “I can only earn so much.”

• “I can only achieve so much.”

• “I can only be so much.”

And these limits aren’t random. They come from:

• the family you were raised in

• the culture you grew up in

• what you saw modeled around you

• the messages you received about what’s “too much”

• the voices that implied: “That’s not for people like you.”

All of that becomes the kaleidoscope of beliefs you carry — beautiful, complex, and often unconscious.

And those beliefs quietly set your ceiling.

The Pattern: Rise, Crash, Repeat

When you have a low floor and a low ceiling, here’s the cycle:

You start rising.
You’re doing well.
You feel momentum.

Then BAM — you hit the ceiling.
Your nervous system panics.
You unconsciously create a crisis.
You self-sabotage.

You fall back down. Sometimes all the way to the floor.

Then you recover.
You rise again.
You hit the ceiling again.
You fall again.

Trust me — this was my pattern for years.

It’s exhausting. It feels like you’re stuck in a cosmic game of whack-a-mole: every time you pop up, life smacks you back down.

But here’s the good news:

You can raise both your ceiling and your floor.

Build a Skyscraper (Instead of a One-Story Shack)

Over time, I’ve watched my floor and my ceiling rise — not overnight, not in one magical breakthrough moment, but gradually and powerfully.

My floor has risen.

I no longer tolerate what I once tolerated:

• disrespect

• silencing myself

• emotional unavailability

• self-abandonment

• chaos disguised as “love”

My ceiling has risen.

I now believe I’m worthy of more:

• healthy love

• success without guilt

• visibility without shrinking

• stability without sabotage

• joy without waiting for the other shoe to drop

Now… is it always graceful?

Absolutely not.

Sometimes growth is messy. Sometimes I “stand in my truth” a little too aggressively and the message comes out sideways. (You know what I mean.)

But that’s part of the process.

The messy middle is where transformation happens.

Getting Into the Subconscious (AKA Going Nancy Drew on Your Brain)

So how do we actually raise our ceiling and our floor?

We have to go deeper than positive thinking.

We have to get into the subconscious mind.

Because most of what blocks us doesn’t live in logic — it lives in survival programming.

Sometimes raising your ceiling/floor is as simple as noticing:

• “Oh wow — I’m doing that thing again.”

• “I just hit my ceiling.”

• “I’m spiraling toward my floor.”

Awareness can change everything.

But other times… we need deeper rewiring.
We need to pull out the old belief systems and reprogram them at the root.

Your Mind Only Allows What It Thinks Is Safe

Here’s the truth:

Your subconscious mind only allows what it believes is safe.

Even if your conscious mind wants success, love, money, freedom — your subconscious is running a safety scan like:

“Is this familiar?”
“Is this allowed?”
“Will this get us rejected?”
“Will this create danger?”

Your subconscious is like a bouncer at a club. If “healthy relationship,” “six figures,” “being visible,” or “being celebrated” isn’t on the VIP list, it blocks it:

“Sorry. Not allowed.”

And that’s why people sabotage what they say they want.

Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they’re broken.
But because their nervous system and subconscious are still operating off old rules.

Rewiring the Mind: Why Hypnosis Works

To truly shift your ceiling and floor, you need more than motivation.

You need a mindset reset.
You need to re-wire and re-fire your brain.

This is why hypnosis is so powerful.

Because the mind can’t fully differentiate between real and vividly imagined experiences.

When you step into a hypnotic state and rehearse a new identity — with emotion, sensation, and clarity — your brain begins building new neural pathways as if it’s already real.

You’re not just hoping for change.

You’re practicing it.

You’re retraining the bouncer.

The Invitation to Rise

If this calls to you…

If you’re tired of hitting the same ceiling…

If you’re done tolerating a low floor…

If you’re ready to rewire your brain so it works for you, not against you…

Join me on a transformational journey.

Let’s not just break through your glass ceiling.

Let’s raise it so high you can’t even see it anymore.

Let’s raise your floor so that your worst days become better than your best days used to be.

You deserve to rise — and keep rising.

Ready to Raise Your Ceiling and Your Floor?

Schedule a hypnotherapy and subconscious reprogramming session with Dr. Laura Sherwood.

👉 Book your transformational session today

Your ceiling is only as high as your mind allows it to be.

Let’s blow the roof off this thing. 🚀✨

Warmest,
Dr. Sherwood

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