How can I notice what alcohol actually does to my body?

Most of us drink without really feeling it. We're somewhere else—in our heads, in conversation, chasing the feeling we think we want. Dipa Ma taught that the body is always telling us the truth, if we slow down enough to listen. Try this: next time you drink, pause halfway through. Set down your glass. Close your eyes for thirty seconds. What do you actually notice? Not what you think *should* happen, but what's really there. Temperature in your chest? Shift in your breath? Heaviness or lightness? Clarity or fog? Keep a small notebook. Not to judge yourself—to get curious. Over a week or two, patterns emerge. Maybe alcohol helps you relax for the first drink, then makes you scattered. Maybe it numbs something specific you're trying not to feel. Maybe it genuinely doesn't serve you, but you've never actually checked. This isn't about willpower or rules. It's about intimacy with your own system. When you know what alcohol actually does to *your* body—not what the culture says it does—you can make real choices, not borrowed ones. That's where freedom lives.