5 Ways to Boost Your Sex Drive

Women’s scores on a sexual desire questionnaire improved 60 percent after eight weekly mindfulness-based cognitive therapy sessions, Lori Brotto, PhD, a clinical psychologist and executive director of the Women's Health Research Institute at the University of British Columbia and her colleagues recently discovered. “We were surprised by the magnitude of the improvement with this program,” she says. Mindfulness improves mood and reduces stress, both of which affect desire, and also teaches you how to pay attention to your body. In the two-and-a-half-hour desire-enhancing sessions, participants did 20- to 30-minute mindfulness exercises that highlighted sensations in the body; homework included focusing on the feeling of water on skin in the shower and paying attention to full-body sensations while masturbating. “Learning to be in the moment and ignore distractions can also help you enjoy sex more, and pleasure fuels desire,” says Brotto.