FOUR YEARS SMOKE-FREE!

I can't believe it's been four years.  Actually I thought last year was four years, but one of my smoke-free rehab partners reminded us all that it was in 2009 that we were holed up at Kripalu in the first week of January, snow all around us.  I had joined this smoke-free workshop that included talk therapy, hypnosis, acupuncture and meditation.  Well, our group wandered around together like a bunch of rehabers, dragging ourselves around in sweats, in a nicotine-withdrawal fog.  It was hard, but there was something about being isolated in the snowy Massachusetts woods, going through this with a bunch of other people that pulled me through.  That and I was seriously determined to stop.  I was driven to do it.

It was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do and I struggle with it still.  I think once an addict, always an addict.  I still have my moments when I think, I want a cigarette, but I have to remind myself why I quit.  I will always be smoke-free.