All right, welcome to episode four. of the quit vaping podcast. So if you guys haven't heard episode two yet, I would recommend you go back and do that. Um, that kind of lays out the foundation of what I do as life coach and how this podcast is going to help you. And it's important to understand the foundation if you want this to really work for you and you really want to quit vaping easily and permanently.

So today we're doing episode, this is the second episode of the vaping myths that keep people vaping. And we're going to talk about those myths and then I'm going to coach you through some examples so you can find the truth. And your own life. And today's myth is that quitting is hard. All right. So I'm going to let you know the truth.

Quitting is very easy. Quitting nicotine is very easy. And let me tell you why you don't need it in your life at all. And once you see that and you actually believe that and understand it, you just genuinely don't have the desire to use it. Now, the reason why quitting feels so hard to a lot of people is because they're using willpower.

And this is what's going on. When you're using willpower to do anything, you're forcing an urge. Because deep down you believe that you're giving up something you're sacrificing in order not to use nicotine. That's why you'd ever have to force an urge, right? When you genuinely believe that nicotine has no place in your life, you don't have urges anymore, you don't have to use willpower, and quitting is very easy.

So the true statement is quitting is hard when you do it the wrong way. Which a lot of people do, right? The whole reason that nicotine replacement exists is to keep this belief going, that you need nicotine, that it's beneficial, that without it, you're going to struggle and it's going to be horrible.

Like, the actual nicotine withdrawal is very, very mild. How do I know this? Because I was addicted for nine years. And because I used to sleep. Within nine years, I slept, oh, you know, just about every single night. And I didn't wake up screaming or terror in the middle of the night with itching pains or having hit my vape.

In fact, I could go through like 10 to 12 hours of shifts where it was mildly uncomfortable and I was slightly irritable. But I wasn't dying nicotine. Withdrawal is uncomfortable, but it's not hard. The reason why it feels so hard is because deep down we believe that we're giving something up in order to quit.

That's where the difficulty comes in, right? Remember your thoughts create your emotions and we consider urges emotions. So when you have thoughts like I'm giving something up that I really enjoy. The urge becomes very strong to use it. And when you don't, you're using willpower, right? And what happens when you resist an urge?

It gets stronger. So this is why it's so hard to quit for most people because they want it. They think it's good for them. They cut themselves off. They're like a kid at a candy shop whose mom just said, you can't have that. And then they want it even more, right? It's a whole drama in our head that can completely be avoided when you learn how to quit the right way.

Willpower on any front doesn't work. Now, I also want you to know I do weight loss coaching as well. And the main tool that we teach in weight loss coaching is how to sit with urges, right? You never want to resist an urge. And that's exactly what willpower is. You don't ever want to resist. You want to allow an urge.

Now I teach this in my quit vaping course. And again, I'm going to say it in every episode, it's completely free for you. The link is in the show notes. Um, but we teach how to allow urges. So before you learn how to allow an urge, I want to get to the belief systems really, because. They're both important, but if you don't have beliefs that nicotine is going to help you with anxiety or anything like that, you're just not going to have urges to use it.

And that's the point I'm at today. So I want to drill this home. Quitting is very easy when you don't believe that nicotine is useful in your life. And a lot of people are going to say, Oh, but Andrew, you have to lie to yourself, right? No, I like nicotine. I enjoy it. I love the taste. I love the relief of hitting a vape.

It's like, no, I don't have to lie to myself. The honest truth of it was that I was lying to myself for nine years thinking that I had to use nicotine in order to enjoy my life. Right. So people come up to me all the time. They're like, well, you're gaslighting yourself into believing that nicotine isn't good or helpful.

It's like, no, you're gaslighting yourself into believing it is. Who's winning here? The person who's addicted to drugs or the one who's not. And I'm, I guarantee you my life is better without nicotine as much as I try to convince myself otherwise for all those years. So when you think quitting is hard, it's because you're working off this framework of beliefs that nicotine is useful or has any kind of purpose in your life.

And now on the last episode, we talked about enjoying nicotine. One of people's biggest argument for holding onto nicotine is that they really enjoy it. And I want to strongly urge you, if you still have that belief, to go listen to the last episode. And then I want to urge you after the episode to sit down and really focus on how you are with nicotine.

Because when you really get to the truth of how you use nicotine, you can find that you don't do it like you do other things that you enjoy. Well, that's very telling, right? Like, when you're hiding nicotine, is it really that enjoyable? When you're feeling guilt around an addiction, is it really that enjoyable?

Now, it might feel good in the present moment, but remember, that isn't actually a feeling good from the drug, it's just the numbing. Over existing emotion, and it's also the relief from having drug addiction. So never make the mistake of thinking that vape is feeling good because it isn't actually feeling good, right?

It's feeling relieving because you're addicted to it. Remember that. And the only feel good that's actually happening is not from the nicotine, which is really poisoning you. It's from the dopamine that it releases, right? But you can get dopamine in all sorts of different ways that are much more natural that don't have any net negative consequences.

So let's get back to this belief. Quitting is hard. Now, most people that evaped have tried quitting. I tried about 50 different times throughout 9 years to quit nicotine in all sorts of different ways. I used nicotine lozenges and gum. I used all the replacements, everything. And the reason why is because I thought that quitting was hard.

So I needed the entire industry of nicotine replacement to help me with it. So funny, because once I just decided to interrogate my belief systems and find that nicotine had no use or place in my life, it really didn't. Quitting was so easy. Right. It's not the nicotine that people are addicted to. Yes, technically, but metaphorically, it's really your belief systems because did you know that within three days, 95 percent of the nicotine is out of your system and within two to three weeks, all of it's out.

So nicotine addiction only lasts three weeks at the very most for very heavy users, however you define that. Anything more than that is all mental addiction. Once you get to the root beliefs, actually, I don't enjoy nicotine. It doesn't help with anxiety. I don't even think I like doing it. And I really genuinely don't think it helps with my emotions.

I think it gives me more stress. I think it could be easy to just get away from it. Then you can just drop it and never look back. And that's exactly what happened to me. It's not a chemical addiction. It is, but that's not the problem. That's the symptom of the deeper issues, which are your beliefs that thinking that you need it to be happy or have a good life.

And like, let's look at this, right? When we look at a heroin user, let's say, I don't know if you've used heroin or not. So I don't think that the majority of nicotine addicts are heroin addicts. So we can use this example. When you look at a heroin addict and you see them on the street, like literally sticking a needle in their vein, you kind of pity them, right?

You're like, I feel bad for them because they think that they need that in their life to enjoy their life, right? Or they're so addicted that that's the only thing that makes them feel like a non addict, ironically. Well, you're doing the same thing with nicotine and people who have never used nicotine think the exact same thing.

They have No nicotine user beliefs, right? They look at someone who's using nicotine. They're like, God, it smells bad. It looks like they're addicted. Like they're, they're almost like pathetic looking sometimes, you know, reaching for their pockets. Like I had a lot of pathetic tendencies in my life where I felt like I was very much.

So the victim of nicotine and you look at someone who has an addiction like that, like to heroin, you're like nothing about that seems enjoyable. And when you believe that thought, which is a rational thought, really. You don't have a desire to use heroin. Well, the exact same thing happens with nicotine, right?

Like, you don't go up to a heroin addict and think to yourself, that must be hard to quit, for me, because you don't see any benefit to it. So, of course, you wouldn't even start. Well, you can be someone who's addicted to nicotine and then change your belief systems and then just drop it within a second.

And that's exactly what happened to me, right? I put down my last vape once I decided I don't think it actually is helping my life. And I found evidence to prove that new belief right a lot more evidence once I actually got honest with myself and then quitting was very, very easy. Remember, it's not a nicotine problem.

It's a belief system behind the nicotine problem and it's an emotional problem too. So in addition, I know we kind of touched on this in addition to the belief systems that nicotine has any value. What's also happening is that you're not comfortable sitting with your emotions and your urges. So whenever you have one, that slight buzzing in your body makes you react to it.

So remember the two things. It's a two part problem. You have to learn how to sit with your urges. And you have to learn to interrogate your beliefs and get rid of any beliefs that nicotine is helping you. And once you learn the skill with nicotine, you can use it in food, you can use it to work out, you can use it to set big goals, to own a business, all these things.

That's why it's so important. Like, when I quit using nicotine, that was the start of this just avalanche of positive changes in my life. I own a business now. I drink a lot less. I eat a lot less garbagey food. I go to the gym five days a week, right? I have clients that I'm helping. I'm an adult now. I, you know, I moved out and have my own place and I'm alone and I love it and it's perfect.

And I don't have urges that I have to react to. You know, I learned how to sit with my urges with nicotine. Because it was mildly uncomfortable for the first couple weeks while you're learning, you know, while you're getting off the nicotine. It's mildly uncomfortable. So in addition to getting rid of the belief systems, you're also going to have to sit with urges.

And that's it. But you, get rid of the belief systems is the main thing. And then quitting becomes easy. The urges are still something you're going to have to learn how to process, but I promise you that that's so doable. They're just vibrations in your, in your body. So this is pretty much the episode.

It's a really simple one. Quitting is hard when we do it wrong. Okay. Well, so is everything. Like pouring a glass of water can be hard if you do it upside down and blindfolded. Changing a light bulb can be hard if you're screwing it in the wrong way. And finally, losing weight can be hard if you're dealing with the food and not the reasons why you're overeating to begin with.

Quitting vaping is easy once you get to the real issue, your belief systems. And I'm not telling you to lie to yourself. I'm going to say this often. That's not what I'm doing. But if you actually want to learn the truth about addiction, you can sit down and figure it out. Right now, if you are vaping and you think it's helping your life in any way, it's because you haven't actually identified and interrogated your beliefs that most likely were formed when you were very young.

Right? Like, I learned that nicotine was good for my dad and my mom. Mostly my dad when I was very young. Watching him always smoke. You learn. Implicitly that that's something that's really valuable. It's important. It was only when I was 24 years old that I was able to actually question that. Like, is nicotine actually important?

Is it good? Is it helping? Is it worth cancer? Is it worth all this nonsense? I'm like, no, but I had never questioned it. Right. Well, I'm giving you the opportunity now to question your beliefs. And the one we're working on today is quitting is hard because quitting is not hard. You know what's hard? You know, it actually takes more willpower than quitting is to continuously smoke against your own intuition.

That's hard, right? Lying to yourself is hard, quitting, putting on your last vape, knowing that that's for your best self. Well, that's easy. All right, guys. Thank you for listening. Really try to get to the truth of your nicotine usage. Again, it's not my place to tell you whether or not to vape. I don't know what's best for you, but I can tell you that we're going to get to the truth together so you can make up your own opinion.

Have a good day. What's up guys? I hope you're enjoying the show and that each episode is bringing you one step closer to becoming a non listener. If you'd like to take all this information to the next level and finally quit vaping for good, you can check out the course link in my bio. Have a great day. See you next week.