Experiences with alcohol suppressing deep meditation?
Has anyone tried to pinpoint how long alcohol affects the intensity of their meditative experiences or how long it takes to be able to access deeper meditative states once you stop consuming alcohol? I am contemplating giving up drinking because of how it suppresses the intensity of my meditations and for how long the suppression effect lingers after consuming alcohol (so long!). At the same time, I enjoy drinking, its social benefits, and don't suffer from addiction or anything like that (I have ~ 1-3 drinks total/week). Also, I do not use any drugs.
This year, I did dry January on a whim, which I think led to me having deeper meditations than they were previously and have been since, despite no other change in my practice. Once the month ended, I thought I could sort of game the system - drink only once a week and then be able to still meditate deeply, but that hasn't been the case. I think even relatively light/moderate amounts of alcohol completely destroy my potential for deep meditation for weeks.
In late January and into the first week or two of February, I had a handful of surprisingly deep meditations. For example, during savasana at the end of yoga classes:
- I once lost my ability to process English (my first language); this was very relaxing in the moment, but afterwards I was sort of freaked out because I didn't even know that was possible. The instructor was reading a passage, but it sounded like gibberish to me... I could hear what she was saying, but it was like my brain couldn't interpret a single word.
- I had the sensation of observing my body from outside of it, like kind of above one of my shoulders?
- A handful of times had the sensation of falling through the floor despite remaining conscious.
While listening to yoga nidra tracks:
- I experienced the falling through the floor sensation multiple times, sometimes in succession??? while remaining awake.
- Also, felt the sensation of floating on a wave, like almost a really relaxing carnival ride hah. This was pretty durable, too - my dog interrupted a couple times to hop onto/off of the bed, but the feeling would quickly return.
These meditative experiences were not subtle, but I also didn't do anything special to achieve them - it was just the amount of alcohol I was consuming around that time that changed. They didn't emerge until the very end of my dry January month, and l was able to have them into the 2nd week of February (I started drinking lightly again once January was over).
It's now May, and I haven't had any of those sort of deeper meditative experiences since the 2nd week of February. The way I feel post-meditation is similar to how I felt during that time (relaxed/floaty), but the intensity of my meditations themselves has been dialed way down - no falling sensations, riding waves, out of body experiences, or lack of language processing.
I've only had 1 other really memorable meditation experience before, ~15 years ago, at a yoga retreat when the instructor played an mp3 that made it feel like there was a bouncy ball pinging around inside my head - I also barely touched alcohol at that time.
Anyways, I am wondering if others have found the same thing. When I googled it, there was some info about how people who meditate often end up giving alcohol, but not a lot behind the "why." There was also a fair amount of content about using meditation to help cope with alcohol addiction, which isn't what I'm after since I don't suffer from alcohol addiction - I just don't like how even small amounts of alcohol affect my access to deep meditation experiences for days or even weeks.