Sometimes it can feel like dreaming of more than what we’ve got betrays our current reality.

As if to wish for something different means that we’re unappreciative of what we have.

As if to long for a little less of this or a brighter shade of that denigrates what stands in front of us.

Dreaming and guilt should never be in the same room together.

They’re like jumper-cable clamps that you never want to cross. If you clamp guilt onto your dream socket, your desire will get all fried into an unrecognizable, unusable mass of chemical confusion.

“I want it, but I feel guilty for wanting it.”

Wires. Crossed. The universe—and your psyche—have no idea what to do with that mixed message.

Here’s the thing …

You are capable of holding two states of consciousness at once: presence and longing, gratitude and desire, contentment and hunger. This is what it means to become whole.

Recognize your preferences and emerging wishes, without laying a guilt trip on yourself.

Judged desires will make your potentiality very, very cautious.

Acknowledged desires whisper to your potential, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Danielle LaPorte is the creator of The Desire Map, author of The Fire Starter Sessions (Random House/Crown), and co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan. An inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and business strategist, she writes weekly at DanielleLaPorte.com, where over a million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice—a site that’s been deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality” and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes.

You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter @daniellelaporte.

*Photo by bolandrotor.