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A teaching from the Baal Shem Tov – Each person must cleverly understand himself and learn how to transform all his attributes into positive ones. Our hearts desire and yearn; but not all that we desire is good. When we desire something, we are to take the ‘desire’ and elevate it by doing something positive with the same ‘desire’. [See Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah]
It is further elaborated in the sefer Me’or Eynayim, that when your love and desire is aroused for some worldly [unholy] pleasure, this love is a ‘fallen love’ – fallen from its supernal origin. The experience of the aroused love is actually a heavenly gift from the Creator blessed is He. Of course this does not mean you should fulfill this desire in an unholy way, especially if it is forbidden to you. Nor should you entertain yourself by tasting the forbidden fruit in your mind. But don’t strangle the experience of desire and love! Hashem wants us to serve Him with love and desire and that is not always easy. So sometimes, to make it easier for us, we receive a heavenly gift – our love and desire is aroused by a ‘fallen love’. We must right then and there act with cleverness and utilize this aroused love and desire in the performance of a mitzvah.
The same is true of a ‘fallen fear’. Suppose all of a sudden something scares you, for instance if a small hyper Chihuahua suddenly jumps out from the bushes barking like mad and your fear has been aroused, don’t strangle the fear. Utilize it – associate it with the fear of transgressing.