By Neil Tepper, The Creativity Doctor” –

Sages and gurus have been saying it forever. Napoleon Hill, in his classic, “Think And Grow Rich,” said it. Even, the popular book, “The Secret,” says it: Thoughts are things.

Well, if thoughts are things, how does that work exactly? I mean, we all think of stuff all the time. I want to be rich. I want to lose a few pounds. I want the perfect relationship.

We do affirmations about it. We write in our journal. We pray for it. But, still it doesn’t materialize.

My sense is that it takes more than just thinking – or journaling, or even praying about something to attract it into being. It takes a bit of … alchemy. Like re-arranging molecules.

Many teachers and coaches say to visualize something we want to occur, but that’s using just one tool. By using all of our senses – not just visualizing, but “sensualizing” – we add power to the alchemy. I call it, “living as if.”

I decided to try that bit of “molecular re-arrangement” with a house I wanted to buy a few years ago. It was my dream house. It had gorgeous views. Light streamed through windows all over the house. It was in the right neighborhood … and, at the right price. But, it was under contract already. (Don’t you just hate when that happens?) My realtor said the only thing I could do was go into backup position and hope the other offer fell through.

Hope? Think wishfully? No. There was more I could do than just hope.

So, I went back to my apartment and began living as if. Every day, I walked around the apartment “as if” it were the house itself.

I imagined the layout of the house laid over the floor plan of the apartment. I sat on the sofa in the apartment and, instead of seeing the cold light from the television as it was situated in the apartment, I felt the warmth of a fire in the fireplace in the house. I could see it dancing and flickering, and hear it crackling.

There were four steps in the house, between the living room and dining room. When I walked in that part of my apartment – my single-level apartment – I moved my feet as if I were walking up … and down … those steps. Up … and down … the steps. Visualizing, “sensualizing,” feeling the steps.

For all intents and purposes, the house was already mine. I was living as if I was living in it.

Now, I’d love to tell you that a week later my realtor called and said that the house was mine if I wanted it. That the other buyer backed out. I’d love to tell you that, and I will tell you that. Because it’s exactly what happened. Plus, the price was reduced because the sellers wanted to move quickly by then. (Don’t you just love when that happens?)

And, here’s the really amazing thing: We’re all alchemists. You too can re-arrange the molecules in your life.

So … where do you start? You start by not taking my word for it. Or, anyone else’s.

Creative alchemy is not a theory.

It’s not a philosophy.

It’s not even a secret.

Of course, this willful act of transformation is not guaranteed to work every time. Manipulating these subtle energies is a tricky thing. But, if you don’t even make the attempt – make the back-up offer, walk up and down the steps, feel the molecules coalesce – you close yourself off from the possibility of manifesting your desires.

Indeed, you already have a powerful mind. You have vision. Intention. You can feel with all your senses. You have all you need, right here, right now.

You can get what you want for your life if you live “as if” you already have it.