As you get into the habit of acknowledging how love and fear in all forms and to all degrees manifest in your life, you are building the foundation for the next step in your personal evolution. You will then be able to consciously choose what you want to experience, to what extent, and when.

It may seem ridiculous for someone to consciously choose to experience any form of fear. However, there are times when it is desirable to expand knowledge about fear and its effect on aspects such as health or a current situation. There is a lot of value in the knowledge that comes from learning about fear.

Fear should not be avoided, but should be welcomed as an opportunity to learn. Avoiding fear will not make it go away. On the contrary, avoiding fear only makes it grow.

An old farmer once taught me a lesson about fear and how to get rid of it. Using Tansy Ragwort, which is poisonous to grazing animals such as the horses he had at the time, as an example, he said cutting it down only makes the plant stronger. It grows back even bigger, or meaner, as he put it. He said the only way to get rid of Tansy is to uproot it.

Fear is like Tansy Ragwort in that regard. Avoiding fear is like cutting out the Tansy, which is a temporary fix at best and only results in making you stronger, or “badder”, when it comes back. The only way to make a fear go away is to uproot the whole problem. Once you have it completely uprooted, you can examine it, revealing the learning it offers you. It then becomes a powerful tool for you to use in creating what you want.

Once the learning is achieved, the next step is to embrace the love that replaces fear, because love always will. When fear is released, love fills the hole left by the roots of fear when it was uprooted.

Again, the challenge is to recognize love, just as you learned to recognize fear. It can come in the form of compassion, forgiveness, joy, or any of the thousands of forms of love.

That is why it is vitally important to learn to recognize both love and fear. This isn’t always easy, so here’s a method to make it easier: make a list. Lists, mind maps, treasure maps, and other similar tools serve to remind you and help you become aware of what you want to attract or manifest.

You will need two sheets of paper, one for Love and one for Fear. Start with the fear list, for two reasons: because it’s easier for us to recognize fear, and because ending the love list is like eating your vegetables first (fear) and then enjoying dessert (love) later. A delicious reward!

When you’ve listed as many forms of each as you can, post the lists where you’ll see them often. By your desk, for example. Add to the lists as you begin to notice more ways you recognize love and fear.

Every time you witness an example of love or feel it within you, stop for a moment and acknowledge it. The same goes for fear. Every time you hear scary words or see a scary act coming from yourself or others, silently acknowledge it with yourself. In both cases, congratulate yourself for becoming more aware of how many ways you notice both love and fear in your life. By doing so, you prepare for the next step: transforming fear into love.