Updated February 23, 2015.

As long term smokers, the limitations that nicotine addiction places on our lives happens gradually.  We often don't realize just how much we were missing out on until we quit smoking. 

I'd like to introduce CM.   At 10 years smoke-free, she reflects on all of the good that's come into her life since quitting - things that never would have happened if she'd continue smoking.

Thanks for sharing your story CM, and congratulations on 10 years smoke-free.

From CM:

I just returned from a lovely dinner out complete with champagne and an absolutely delicious chocolate cake in honour of my 10 year quitiversary.    I'm thrilled to be able to celebrate this milestone and so grateful for this sacred space, where I found the information and words of wisdom, encouragement, and support that were such critical catalysts for my success in this extremely challenging, but infinitely rewarding, endeavour to overcome my addiction to cigarettes.

Over the last ten years, I've had the opportunity to live a life that I never would have had if I had remained a smoker. 

I've run four half-marathons, two full marathons, and swam-ran-biked a half ironman triathlon. 

I've sung my heart out in three musicals (community theatre), including one in which I played a lead role (my dream role, in fact:  Fantine in Les Miserables). I've sung in front of - and received a vocal lesson from - Rebecca Cain and Michael Burgess! 

I've hiked the Arctic tundra, canoed remote lakes and streams, and biked 100 km in a single day.

 

I've met my match; fallen in love with a never-smoked non-smoker who can't even imagine that I ever smoked.

Life has been good - and there is more to come!

I don't think I could have understood or foreseen the way in which quitting smoking would ultimately affect my life as a whole when I began this journey.  Although I gained a true appreciation of how liberated I had become in my daily life, no longer having to plan my life around my addiction, within the first couple of years, I don't think I appreciated - because there's no way I could have known - that quitting smoking would entirely alter the overall trajectory of my life. 

Today, I am a different person than I would have been if I had continued to smoke.  All of the experiences I've had have, of course, made me who I am today.  In the last ten years, the most remarkable of these would not have been possible if I had continued to smoke.

I am so very grateful that I have been able to overcome my addiction.  I am also so very grateful for this space, which has helped me in ways I never would have expected when i wrote my first post a few months into my quit.

Best of luck to each and every one of you.  I wish you every success.

If you're still smoking, 10 years smoke-free probably sounds like an insurmountable mountain.  It's not though.  Stub out that last cigarette and get started.  One day smoke-free will some become two, then a week, month and more.  That's how CM quit and you can't do it too.

More from CM:

Quitting Smoking is a Process - CM's One Year Smoke-Free Milestone

It's Simply a Matter of Mind Over Mind - CM's Two Year Smoke-Free Milestone