Hello and welcome to the Quit Vaping Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Andrew Cipriano. And if you have not listened to episode two yet, Welcome. Uh, I would strongly recommend you do that. If you have welcome back, I really genuinely hope that this is one of the last episodes you have to listen to in order to quit permanently and easily.

And I did this podcast from a life coach perspective. So in that second episode, I'm teaching you about how to manage your thoughts and emotions, or at least giving you the framework for how to understand that that is the issue. A lot of us want to look at vaping as the problem, but it's just a symptom of something deeper.

And I don't, again, think that vaping itself is a problem, but when we don't want to do it anymore and we can't find the reason why we're doing it or why it's so hard to quit, then that becomes a problem in our own lives, right? I'm not anti vape. I'm not anti nicotine. I vaped for seven years. I smoked for two years.

Like, I had my fair share of enjoying it, I would say, quote unquote, thinking I was enjoying it. So no problem there. But the main things you want to understand is how to process your urges, sit with your emotions. And then how to also manage your thoughts. Now, as a life coach, my main job, literally my one main job is to show you awareness around your thoughts and show you that all of them are optional and your beliefs.

But I call thoughts, beliefs use the term interchangeably. It does not matter. So when you can believe anything you want, you end up changing your life. That's literally how your mind works. It's so simple. It's so applicable. It's so genuine and real. And that's how it goes every time. So when you believe that quitting is hard, you end up making quitting very hard.

Right. Because your thoughts create emotions in your body, which drive your actions and create results. And when you believe that quitting is easy, it becomes easy. So today I'm going to talk to you about the one, we call it breakthrough, right? I'm sure you've heard that term before, like breakthrough. And you're like, what does that mean?

It's just a perception shift, a thought change where your belief shifts a little bit. That's it. So a breakthrough is when your beliefs shift. Super simple. And that's like a term you might hear in coaching or like the mental health world or the self help world. And that's all it is, is a change in belief.

Because remember that if you change your belief, you change your actions and you change your results. That's it. So people who go from vaping to non vaping, what happens is they change their belief systems. And if they don't, they're always using willpower. And the reason why you're at willpower with yourself, if you don't change your belief systems is because if you're not vaping, but you still believe that you want to vape and be a vapor, then you're going to use.

Your own power against yourself. You're literally at war with yourself. That's a willpower means you're using power against your own will. In this case, in all cases, willpower is just power against your own beliefs. That means you're taking different actions than what you believe is the right thing to do.

That's why willpower is so absolutely draining. It just doesn't work in the longterm. And if it does, you always feel deprived. Because you still believe that you need that or want that substance in order to not be missing out. Very important to understand. So the one thought shift that really shifted my desire to vape and just totally blew it out of the water, like literally no desire to vape was in September of 2021.

Let me give you the backstory. So I was going on a trip to Portland with my friends and it was the first time in a while that I was traveling because of the whole COVID thing. And I remember. I was quitting vaping a couple of days before that trip. And at that same time I had been thinking about my future career and figuring out at that time I was either going to go into therapy or I was going to go into life coaching.

And I had a whole bunch of drama over which one I was going to go into, but I remember having this thought I was sitting down one day I was reading. It was a self help book and it was talking about changing your beliefs, um, working on your mental health, like doing the things you need to do consistent and consistent action in order to change your life.

And I remember, During this reading session, it was like 40 minutes of reading. I was just sitting in my bed and like every three to five minutes, I would reach over and grab my vape, maybe even less than that. I wasn't really timing it, but there was like, I would read something amazing. I'd be like, Oh my God, yes.

I'm in charge of my actions and all this stuff. And then I'd reach over and grab my vape and it was unconscious. And at the end of the session, I like grabbed my vape and I just immediately caught some awareness. I don't know where it came from, but it was like this flash of awareness. What am I doing?

I'm reading this book about helping people with their mental health, taking control of my actions, being in control of myself, and I'm literally using a substance that I don't even feel like I'm in control over. And I remember thinking, it doesn't matter if I go into therapy or life coaching or any other field.

If I envision myself in 10 years as the powerful, amazing person I want to be in my career and life, there's no vaping as a part of it. The vaping just can't exist or coexist in that life. And I remember throughout the next week, uh, it was maybe the 3 to 5 days before I went to Portland, I remember just sitting on that thought, like, this, this substance just does not belong.

In my future life. So what that meant was the sooner I could get rid of that substance, the sooner I could start to actually become the person that I'd always wanted to become so desperately the person that people looked up to. There was a role model and leader that isn't addicted to anything. So a day before my trip to Portland in September of 2021.

Not that long ago, but it feels like a long time. I put down my last vape. It wasn't even dead, by the way. I put it in a water bottle. You know, I did the dramatic water bottle and shake up. I watched the little light go out on it. It was like choking itself out, you know, like trying to grasp for air in a full water bottle.

And then I just never looked back. And you know, what's so funny is that quitting wasn't even hard. Like the, the physical, the chemical addiction of nicotine, it lasts about two to three weeks at the very most, but it's a very quick acting drug. The addiction happens very quickly. And it also Um, I guess unhappens very quickly, so that's beautiful.

The real addiction lays in your mind. And this is with anything, by the way, it does not matter if it's nicotine or food or sex or porn or gambling or working. Addiction is something that happens in your mind. The substances absolutely amplify it depending on what it is and how addictive it is. But addiction is something that happens in your mind.

And I was actually going to find out later after I quit vaping that it was an emotional addiction. So I learned how to process my emotions better as well later on when I was learning about the life coaching tools. And I added that element into the course that I teach because I think it's an important element.

A lot of the reasons that people claim that they vape is because it helps them with their emotions. And actually that isn't true because addiction does not help anybody with emotions. It covers them up. And I don't believe that numbing or covering up is actually helping with or dealing with emotions.

But... The main monster, truly, is your belief systems. Once I could genuinely see that the person I wanted to become would become real, in some sense, by me not vaping, I just let it go and I never looked back. And now, a year and a half almost, it's been about a year and a half now, Um, it's March of 2023, I am no longer vaping.

I have absolutely no desire for it. And you know, the funniest thing is, I actually am becoming that person that I envisioned myself as about a year and a half ago. I own a business. I am not addicted to anything. The closest thing, the most. Addictive thing I have in my life would probably be coffee. I have like two or three cups a day.

Uh, but it's so funny cause I don't really overeat sugar anymore. I can at least manage it. Like I'll do it occasionally, but it's very managed. I don't drink alcohol. Like I used to, um, I can still like, I'll do it. I'm not anti alcohol or weed or anything like that. But, um, it's a very controlled, it's a very controlled and I've become the kind of person who I was envisioning.

As a leader, and I go up in front of people and I put myself out there and I'm strong and I don't care what other people think of me and I can stand up and be proud of myself because I'm no longer fighting with my own higher self being attached to a drug that was not serving me. One of my favorite people in the world.

Her name is Brooke Castillo. She's the woman who certified me through her coaching program. She says, it only takes two seconds to make a decision. Everything else is drama. So when are you going to take your two seconds? And that really sticks with me today because at some point every single person who vapes or uses nicotine or is addicted to anything, they have that thought come into their head.

I think it's actually, I think this happens at least once a day with addiction. When are you going to stop? When are you going to face it? And it takes us so long to just give ourselves the two seconds to make that decision. But all you need is one thought, one reason that's really compelling that will have you shift your thinking.

and make you not even desire nicotine anymore. And it's different with nicotine than other substances. For example, with alcohol, I still drink occasionally. Um, weed is legal in Michigan. I hit a joint occasionally, like I'm not totally against any of that and I'm not even anti nicotine, but the problem with nicotine is that It's either in your life or isn't like it's such an addictive drug and people say, yeah, no, I can, I can manage it and that's fine, but it's so addictive that it's very, very hard to have a controlled relationship with nicotine, even if you are managing your emotions and your thoughts.

So, it's your choice if you want to use it or not, but I have learned in my own experience from my own life and watching the people around me that have also struggled with it and quit and then started again and then quit and then started again, that nicotine is something that's very, very difficult to do casually.

Whereas with drinking, with weed, with overeating sometimes, with sugar, it's easier to do that. So you can decide for your own life what's best for you. I could never tell you, um, what's best for you and that's truly not my job as a life coach just to give you some awareness. But just be aware that if you want to quit vaping.

It helps to feel your emotions, and I talk about that in other podcasts. And then the other part is just that you have to find a good, compelling reason that outweighs your reason to ever vape again. And then just like that, quitting becomes easy. It's a decision that you make in two seconds that lasts for the rest of your life and changes everything because quitting vaping isn't just about getting away from nicotine.

It's about the person you want to become becoming more real. And when you light that fire. That is a fire that you cannot put out. That's going to change your entire life and your legacy for yourself and those around you. If you'd like to quit vaping for good, I'd recommend you stay for the next 20 seconds while you listen to the outro and check out the link in the bio for the very, very affordable course I have to help you quit for good.