How can I appreciate something that isn't here yet?

Apply the Positive Aspects method to snippets of past memories. Abraham calls these "Touchstones".

There's a full explanation here: How do you generate the feeling of having it when you've never had it?

Funnily enough, I did use this method to get a big red (luxury) car a long time ago that, at that time, felt completely unaffordable. I took snippets of memories of other cars I had driven that I felt would give me the feeling I wanted from the new car, and just created and focused upon these "Touchstone" snippets in an appreciative way from time to time.

I think it's a matter of

1. how much energy you have been flowing in the absence of what you want
2. and how habitual your Vortex vibration is in your everyday life

Let's say you want a turquoise car but you have been wanting it for so long and you have been flowing hours and months and years of "absence energy" to it.

Then it's not very likely for you to be able to appreciate the presence of it. But if you try to appreciate something that doesn't cause much resistance in you, then it'll be easy to appreciate. For example, when in the Vortex, try to appreciate a future Inward Quest Version or a future answer.

That said, you can be so dominantly and habitually in the Vortex that you can get out of reach of that turquoise car resistance. And then it'll feel easy and natural to appreciate your turquoise car. Because you'll have access to the present of it easily and naturally. But if you are only tentatively in the Vortex, the resistance to that car will dominate and kick you out of the Vortex because it has already a lot of momentum going.

So there is no trick to it. It's only a matter of how habitual and dominant your Vortex vibration is.

1. It's a question of energy - when I'm living an absence of something, I can feel that this is a stream, which is expressed to me as the absence now, when I'm pre-aligned, but this energy contains, this energy IS, the presence of what I want in this stream. Can you feel that?

For example, when I'm living in an apartment with too little space - I can feel that this energy is of the stream that IS lots of space, and I know I'm BECOMING it.

When you can feel that, you can appreciate being in this stream, being this stream, and so, appreciating the presence of what you want, because this energy DOES present itself in your life right now.

In a sense, the absence is the presence. Can you feel what I mean? :)

2. Regarding the appreciation, when you are in this energy of what you want, you can appreciate it feeling it present - these two processes can help in it:

31. Thanking for desire as achieved - I love it! :)
35. What's in it for you

3. You can find out, which feelings you will have when having what you want, and then you can find these feelings in your present life, and appreciate them. An example you can find here:

3. 3-3-3 (visibility, security, openness)

In the third part, when you're playing detective, you're finding where those pieces present themselves in your current life. Then, there's a lot to appreciate. :)

Good day of appreciation! :)

I completely agree with you that it is hard or almost impossible to appreciate or show gratitude for something that you are lacking. For me, I find it easier to start to be grateful for what I already have on a consistent basis. I start out by just writing out a rampage of appreciation, kind of just listing very general things that i appreciate. As I keep writing the list will be more and more specific until I can actually feel the things that I am grateful for. As I can start to feel my emotions shift to a state of appreciation, I use that emotion to kind of turbo charge my list and get even more and more specific. And finally, it will get to the point that something that I write will actually bring tears to my eyes because I suddenly realize how fortunate I am to have this specific thing in my life. And I am by no means a cryer :)

Anyway, what I have realized is, the more you do this, the more you will have to be grateful for. I don't just mean that you will think about more things to write down. I mean, you will actually acquire more physical things in your life for you to be grateful for. So, if it is a big, red car that you want, you can start be being grateful the the car that you have now, even if it is an old car that breaks down all the time. I bet if you had to take the bus everyday, you would start to appreciate you old, car that breaks down all the time. And what will happen is, maybe you won't just wake up one morning to find your dream car sitting in your driveway wrapped up in a bow :) But by being grateful for the things that you already have, you will be open to receive more and your life will gravitate towards all of your desires.

Or you can also "pretend" as you also mentioned. You can dream up and visualize the person you wish to be and all of the things that you want and simply act the part. This is something that I have done in the past, and I had a pretty big manifestation come in just a couple weeks. But this is not easy to do, because you almost have to pretend like you are an actor and you can not deviate from your character even for a second. After a couple weeks of me "pretending" things about myself had started to change, like my attitude, the way I walked, and even my posture. You have to convince your subconscious that this is "you", and I was actually shocked how quickly my outer world started to mirror what I was pretending to be. After my first big manifestation, I stopped trying so hard because I mistakenly thought that I didnt need to anymore. That was actually the first time that I was in the vortex for a prolonged period. I have tryed this method plenty of times since then, but I haven't had the commitment or endurance to make the "pretending" last for a prolonged period. It really is a lot harder then it sounds...