All right. Hello. Welcome back to the quit vaping podcast as always guys. I'm your host, Andrew Cipriano, and I want to say some things today, so I'm going to get right into the episode, but really fast. I just want to say, I've been trying to narrow down on my target market lately, you know, in a business, after you do general helping people and believe in yourself and all these things, you get to a place where you have to specify who you're helping and how you're helping them, right?

You have to specify so that you don't have to spend all day long re, you know, teaching educating people on your message and what you do. So kind of your messaging speaks for you if you get a good target market and they understand what you're saying and all these things. So. Um, my mission in life coaching is to help people become the best versions of themselves.

And the way that you do this is literally by sitting with all of your emotions, understanding what you want, going after it, even though it's scary. And today's episode is going to be called the real cost of vaping. And the reason why I'm calling it that is because I don't believe that vaping when you're addicted to something, whether it's nicotine or any substance is allowing you to become the best version of yourself.

And we're going to talk about today and it's going to be a rather in depth episode. And the reason I'm inspired to do this is because I talked to a podcast professional the other day. Who's helping me get more specific on my marketing, my niche. And I've decided that I want to, at least as of right now, I want to help people who are entrepreneurial and my entrepreneurially, is that even a word minded to quit vaping?

Because I think that it stops them from becoming the best version and living the best version of their lives. I want to work with people who want to live a very big version of their lives. I want to work with people who are mission based and who want to leave a big impact on the world. And typically that they were going to find that way into leaving the impact in entrepreneurship.

And I also want to work with people who understand the value of self help and personal development because I've talked to a lot of people who vape and there are certainly a lot of people vaping who just don't really see the value in learning these tools. And it's kind of funny to me because a lot of them want to quit vaping and you have to and you have to learn these tools to go vaping at least to do it permanently without any desire and all these things.

So. That's my mission. I want to help people, especially entrepreneurial minded people who have big visions for their life and who want to drive and lead a purpose driven business, I want to help them quit vaping. And this is just a gateway into the tools that I teach to help them become that person. So anyways, with that said, um, life coaching taught me how to feel.

And life coaching taught me how to actually choose consciously what I want to think and believe. And I believe that those are the tools you will need in order to become the purpose based person you want to become. And those are the tools you'll need to quit vaping without any desire in order to quit.

You have to change the way that you think about nicotine. You have to, or else you're going to always be at willpower with yourself. So. All right, I watched this documentary this morning. I was listening to it while I work out because I'm weird, like a lot of people listen to like EDM and shit like that while they work out.

I'm like literally listening to like self help, personal development, uh, tools. I will listen to like Abraham Hicks, like the law of attraction stuff, all that kind of stuff. But I was listening to this documentary today. It's called the Nicotine War and it's by Frontline. You can find the documentary on YouTube completely for free.

But what I realized is I don't want to spend my entire life and career In war with anybody. I don't think that's an energy that I want to promote. And the whole entire documentary is pretty much how in the 20th century, the nicotine and the tobacco companies were completely deceptive with the politicians that were trying to fight them.

And it's this entire like childish lying back and forth, like just manipulating and lying and cheating and sealing. And it's like, I don't want to do that. That is not what I want. So I've decided, and I think this is the only way to really help people is I want to inspire people to change. I do not want to fight.

Other people who are trying to manipulate them. I want to inspire the actual individual that if they want to live the best version of their lives, that they have to do it for themselves. And in order to quit vaping, you have to be able to be consciously questioning the things that you believe and choose deliberately what you want to believe in what you want to feel and how you want to respond to the emotions in your body.

So that is what I've decided. And the way that I'm going to help you with in individual empowerment is with coaching because life coaching helps you learn how to critically think. I kind of rag on my four year degree sometimes and I kind of rag on the clinical world and I do that, um, tongue in cheek.

It's not really that serious, but the reason I am so sold on why life coaching is so important is because it teaches you how to actually critically think about the thoughts that you decide to have in your head. You can't always control every single thought that comes in your head, but what you can control is whether or not you believe it.

And that's the most important thing you can possibly learn because it comes to changing your behavior. That's the only thing you need to learn. If you think something, you will feel an emotion in your body, and you will act in a way that proves that thought right. Your thoughts create your emotions, which drive your actions and create your results.

That's the only thing you need to know, is that your thoughts are self fulfilling prophecies, and that you get to decide what to think. So if you're currently using nicotine, or you're finding it hard to quit, the reason is because you are believing things about nicotine that's creating desire. That's it.

That's really all you have to know. When you think a thought that creates desire, for example, I like vaping. By the way, that's a choice. Did you ever think about that thought and realize that that's a choice? It's optional to decide if you want to think that you like vaping or not, because I questioned that thought.

And it's one of the big reasons why I don't vape anymore is because I don't think that I like it. And I want you guys to know something. I'm crazy. I'm actually crazy. I went to this life coaching convention last week. And I came home, and after everyone and their mother and father and uncle told me I should niche into vaping, I came home and I felt kind of disconnected from nicotine users.

And I'm like, you know, it's been two years since I vaped. And I was meditating the other day, and I had this crazy impulse where I decided, like, what if I just vape for one week? What if I decide to vape for one more week and I just did it and then I use the exact tools that I teach and that I practice every day to quit vaping.

And that's exactly what I did. So on Monday of last week, I started vaping again. I got fully addicted on Friday night. I was vaping and just chiefing it up while I was at a bonfire drinking some beers and on Saturday morning I quit. It is currently Monday while I'm recording this podcast and I feel fine.

So I decided to get into the head of a vapor for a week in order to really get. it into the tools that I teach and understand what is it that's creating desire. And what I learned is really, and this is what I already knew, but I learned again from my current perspective is the big domino. The big thing you need to change when it comes to nicotine is your thoughts about it because that's where most of the desire to use is coming from.

The small domino, the small problem is the nicotine addiction itself, which really is very easy to get off when you have no belief systems that are creating a bunch of desire to use it. For example, if I believe that nicotine is good and it helps me and it serves me, it's part of my identity and it helps with anxiety and I need to use it and I like it, then you're going to have so much desire to use nicotine, not because of the addiction that's chemical, because of the desire that's created from the thoughts in your mind.

If I think I like something, I'm going to have a very strong desire to use it because of the thought that's created in my head that's actually generating that desire. As of right now, I genuinely don't have any thoughts about nicotine that I need in my life. I don't see my person as someone who vapes.

Even when I was vaping, it felt like there was a cognitive dissonance where I knew it wasn't good for me. I knew it was holding me back energetically from the person I wanted to become the most. So, when it came to quitting on Saturday morning, it was mildly uncomfortable and I sat with a lot of urges.

But the big thing was the desire. Coming from all the thoughts that I no longer had. So it was very, very easy to quit again. It really was easy because I changed my belief systems about nicotine and that's it. Most of the desire was created from those. So the big domino, the big monster, whatever you want to call it, is the belief systems about nicotine, but then the smaller.

Issue is the emotional element. So I want you guys to know something as of now, I'm sure this is kind of a pop culture term anymore. Like dopamine, everyone's talking about dopamine. So it's important to understand something. Dopamine is a neurochemical neurotransmitter in your brain that is released in.

It feels good, right? So it's released whenever our body thinks that we should be doing something that's good for us, right? Whenever. Our body thinks that whatever we're doing or whatever substance we're using is going to lead to survival. It releases dopamine. And the reason it does that is because our brain wants us to do that thing again.

It thinks we're going to live longer. So whenever we have something that releases dopamine, our brain and our body thinks it's going to protect us. That's why we're releasing dopamine. So whenever we have like really sugary foods or anything like that, we get a really big dopamine response. Even though it's not necessarily good for us over time, our brain and our body don't really give a shit.

It just wants us to survive right now in the present moment, long enough to re reproduce and then die pretty much like that's what evolutionarily our brain and body are designed to do. So we have this part of our brain that's just very much so like. A reward system that works on dopamine. Okay. And that's important to understand.

But there's another part of our brain, and this is called the prefrontal cortex. And I want you to think of the prefrontal cortex as the part of our brain that makes us human. No other animal has this, it's just humans. So, when we use something that releases dopamine, the part of our brain that wants to keep us alive, not the prefrontal cortex, it uses that dopamine response.

But then the other part of our brain can actually override the dopamine response. And this is the part of the brain that I teach people to use as a life coach. If I can teach you to think about your own thoughts, and to consciously bring awareness to your emotions, and to respond to them in a way that's conscious, you've actually taken control over the dopamine system in your brain by using the human part of your brain.

So I'm going to say this in a different way. You have an emotional part of your brain that responds on a reward system that uses dopamine. Okay, so when I hit my vape, it releases dopamine. If I'm not conscious about this whole process, then I'm going to unconsciously start using this dopamine system to get addicted to something.

Okay, but if I can learn how to use my prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that can actually watch itself, it's called metacognition, then I can override The addictive tendencies that my brain will have to do things that release dopamine. This is what personal development is all about. It's not about not using substances.

It's about doing it consciously and having control over it because you know how your brain works and you actually practice putting your prefrontal cortex in charge. It's a skillset. That is why when I, when I talk about the real costs of vaping, it's not that it's addiction and it's like going to create any health effects.

I don't really care about those things, although they're important. That's not my goal in vaping. It's that it stops you from becoming the version of yourself who actually consciously takes control of your brain and your body, your emotions. So you can create the life that you want. So there's the dopamine and then there's a nicotine addiction.

So I want to say this nicotine addiction or nicotine releases dopamine. I know that's a lot of EANS, right? There's a lot of, so nicotine is a substance found in vaping. It's addictive and dopamine is the neurotransmitter that feels good when it's released. When we use vaping, when we get nicotine into our body, it releases dopamine, but also nicotine is addictive.

So when you use nicotine, there's a couple of things happening here. For one, you're creating this huge happiness response. Because you're getting dopamine, which feels good when you're using vaping and then you're also addicted to the substance of nicotine, right? So you're getting this huge response to your body.

Your body thinks that that substance is really important and that's why you're going crazy for it And that's why when you get addicted to it, you just keep using it and using it and using it. It feels good It's a chain reaction. It's a positive feedback loop Which means a positive feedback loop is pretty much when you use something And it creates a positive reward.

You end up using more and more and more of it. And then you're in this loop where you're just vaping all the time. Now there's three things that happen when you're addicted to nicotine. The first thing is you get unwanted results, right? So when I'm addicted to nicotine, I'm getting a whole bunch of unwanted results in my life.

For one, I have a lot more anxiety. You may have been sold a lot of belief systems from the tobacco companies that nicotine helps with anxiety and things like focus, but it doesn't when you're addicted to a drug, you're more anxious because that's the actual effect of being addicted to something is your body creates anxiety and also you're constantly thinking about that thing.

So there's no concentration benefit whatsoever. And I would, I can attest to this after being addicted to nicotine for a week, my brain, it was constantly throwing thoughts at me to use nicotine while I was coaching, by the way, while consultations. It's like, Randomly while I was driving, I would just, I'd be focused and then it would just be like, boop nicotine thought if you're vaping, I'm sure you understand this.

So, um, the first thing that happens when you're addicted to nicotine is that you get unwanted results. Okay. Anxiety, concentration issues. You're not in control of yourself really because you're addicted. So a lot of unwanted results that come with addiction. The second thing that happens when you're addicted to nicotine is you're playing your life small.

You have to. So a lot of people don't like to hear this because they don't like to acknowledge it and they don't want to think it's true. But the only way to create the best version of yourself and have the biggest life that you want is to consciously and willingly step into uncomfortable emotions sometimes.

These emotions include things like fear, uncertainty, doubt. You actually have to create anxiety sometimes because when you're going to do something that you're uncertain over, you know, your body creates anxiety. So you have to step into uncomfortable emotions. When you're addicted to a substance, it allows you to avoid uncomfortable emotions because when I have an uncomfortable emotion in my body, like anxiety, I can use something like nicotine to create a fake.

Happiness response in my body to avoid the emotion. Now when you are addicted to something and you use the substance that you're addicted to, it's not actually dealing with the emotion. It's escaping it. I want you to imagine nicotine is throwing a blanket over your current emotional state. So if I have anxiety and I use nicotine, I'm not actually processing the anxiety.

I'm throwing a blanket of dopamine on top of it. I'm avoiding it. And eventually that blanket is going to get ripped off and then the anxiety will still be there. And most likely I'll have much more anxiety because I haven't processed the existing anxiety and now a drug addiction is creating more of it.

So the first thing that happens when you're addicted to an 18 is you get a whole bunch of unwanted results, right? Health issues. Um, emotional issues, uh, addiction issues. That's obvious. Everybody can agree with that. A lot of unwanted results come with using nicotine. The second thing is that we play our life small because we allow nicotine to avoid the uncomfortable emotions we need to grow.

So that's the second part. Now the third thing that happens when you're addicted to nicotine is that you don't know what you want. So let me tell you something. We are all born with an emotional guidance system. It's the most magical thing in the whole world. We all have a, I call it the magic compass and it's so true and I've spent the last two years actually refining my compass and learning how to use it and I can tell you with certainty this is amazing.

So if you don't know what you're doing with your life, the reason is typically not because you don't actually know. It's never a knowing issue. Your body's telling you all the time, your emotions are always guiding you towards what you want. It's because you're not listening. And the reason why you're not listening is probably because you've, you've been trained not to listen to your emotional guidance system because you're using things like nicotine, overeating, uh, your phone, anything to use to create dopamine artificially that you can distract yourself from your life with.

That's actually mucking up your emotional guidance system. So in addition to getting unwanted results from nicotine, playing it small in your life, not actually taking the actions you need to create the big life that you want. You're also not knowing what it is that you want to begin with. So it's not about nicotine.

I don't care about nicotine. I'm not in a war against nicotine. I'm not trying to go into the political debate. I'm not trying to go into big tobacco and change their legislation or have them stop marketing bad things to youngsters. I don't care about that. When you're addicted to something, it stops you cold dead in your tracks from creating the life that you want, that you tell everybody you want so badly.

I am a life coach. What that means is I sincerely, and I mean this so, so deeply, I believe that you can have any version of your life that you want. And I simultaneously believe that nicotine is stopping you in your tracks from getting it. The first thing when I started learning the tools of how to regulate my emotions and think thoughts deliberately, the first thing that went in my life was nicotine.

And I really want you to sit with that. It's not about nicotine. It's about becoming the person you want to become and living the life that you want to live. And one of the ways that you know this is true is envision the biggest life for yourself. Really. And if you say, I have no idea, Andrew, what I want, I don't care.

Make it, make, make it like totally made up in fairytale. You're in a castle. I don't give a shit. You're in like a million dollar state or a five million dollar state in Los Angeles. Whatever you want. You have like the most beautiful wife or husband or dogs ever. Like, imagine it for just a minute.

Close enough. Are you holding a vape in that life? No, you can try to lie to me and say yes, but you're not, you know it. If you're listening to this podcast, you know that nicotine is stopping you from becoming the person you want to become. And I say that with so much love and absolutely no shame whatsoever.

I can help you stop vaping. And what I want to say is this podcast can help you stop vaping. And I can help you not only stop vaping, but actually plan out the life you want, learn how to think on purpose and feel on purpose. And then you look back two years from now and you're actually in the life that you want.

I am in the life I want right now. It's the craziest thing. I actually am living the life I want. I have a business I love. I love myself. I don't shame myself. I don't beat myself up anymore. I'm not addicted to anything out of my control. I feel my emotions. I'm here for myself. I meditate because I want to.

I vape for a week and then just drop it like nothing because it's nothing to me. I don't have beliefs that I need it. I don't need it in my life. So then what ends up happening is I don't think that I need it. I ended up not needing it and ended up helping other people in such a meaningful way. I got a message this morning from somebody who said that they've been listening to podcasts and they said, you have no idea how much you've changed my life.

Do you know what a dopamine rush that is that the work that I'm putting into the world that's difficult to make, that I'm doing vulnerably, do you know what a dopamine rush that is to get a message in the morning, wake up on a Monday morning to that message? Because I was able to learn how to feel my emotions and think critically because I was able to put my work into the world and actually decide I want to become the person who I want to become the most, who isn't vaping, who actually helps other people through it.

There is no such thing as a dopamine rush like that. When you're addicted to something, addiction doesn't bring dopamine rushes like that. It brings a false sense of pleasure that's creating so much uncomfortable things in your life. That's stopping you from the real pleasure. One of the coolest things I've heard, um, it recently, at least I hear a lot of cool things in this industry and the self development industry.

But one of the coolest things I heard recently was, um, there was like a professional meditator and I don't know his name. So I apologize for this, but, um, they said, you know, you don't drink, you don't smoke. You don't do any of these vices that like people do, you know, to quote unquote, enjoy their lives.

And he said, what do you, what is it? Do you just not like pleasure? And he looked him in the eye and it was the coolest thing ever. He said, no, I like pleasure. I don't like small pleasure. Like the kind you're talking about. I like big pleasure. Like the kind I get from meditation from connecting to the all.

It was so cool. So when you're vaping, you're not becoming the person you want. And again, this work is never done with shame. Right now. I promise you, if you're vaping, you're shaming yourself enough. So we're going to stop that right now because that is the first step to looking at your life with curiosity and compassion.

And that is the prerequisite to doing this work. So if you're beating yourself up and you're trying to listen to podcasts and you're using it against yourself or using it to beat yourself up, that's not what we do. And that's not what we do in coaching. Okay. That's not the way that you create the person you want because I promise you the life that you want the most.

That person is so compassionate with themselves. And that's why they don't vape. All right, guys, this was an action packed episode, so keep an eye out, but I am in a niche down further. I want to help people who are right on the brink of entrepreneurship, who don't quite believe in themselves and they don't believe it's possible.

And they've tried a thousand times and you will see me in this industry helping people actually believe in themselves enough to go after the life they want. I'm using vaping as a window into this work and I'm very, very transparent about that. It's not about the vaping to me. I will help you quit vaping.

Stick around, see what I offer in the future. I will have you quit vaping, but it's not about that. That's such just the entry point into this work. That's just the beginning. Once you quit vaping and you learn these tools and you learn how to love yourself and you learn how to think on purpose and really decide what you want to believe because you want to believe it for yourself.

Your whole life's going to change. So thank you for listening to this episode. I'll, I'll be around. I don't know if I'm going to do this podcast indefinitely, but a lot of people have been getting help from it. And although I'm going to change my target market a little bit and how I do things, um, I think I'm going to leave it up because of the message I got this morning from the nice guy who, who took the time to reach out and tell me his pot, this podcast has changed his life.

So thank you all for listening. Like you guys don't know. You guys don't know what it means that you reach out to me and let me know how this is changing my, you know, your life and my life. And obviously I run a business with my coaching and obviously I want to make money and have a big life too. But like money doesn't compare to that.

Vaping doesn't compare to that. Alcohol doesn't compare to that. Molly does not compare to that high that you get when somebody tells you how much their life has changed from, from just being associated with you. So thank you. You was kind. He was smart. He was important. I'll see you in the next episode. I have no idea what I'm talking about and keep an eye out because I'm going to be coming up with a whole bunch of programs, helping people that are entrepreneurially minded really get into that life and step into that for themselves.

So thank you. I'll see you next week. Have a fantastic day and enjoy fall. It's freaking fall in Michigan. It's the best time of the year.