The science is in

Brotto and her research team conducted a study from 2015 until 2020 where 148 women attended eight weekly group mindfulness sessions. A facilitator guided them through various mindfulness exercises and then encouraged them to continue practicing at home each day between sessions. The results (published in 2021) showed that the program worked. Here are the highlights: [1]

The women reported feeling greater satisfaction with their relationship and a reduced tendency to ruminate over sexual concerns. [2]

Their sexual arousal also increased when they were shown erotic stimuli in a private lab environment compared to how they responded to the same stimuli at the beginning of the project. [3]

The women had significantly more mindbody synchrony, or concordance—the degree to which the mind’s sexual arousal and the body’s physical response are in sync when a woman is exposed to erotic triggers. (For a lot of women, they are not in sync, and many experts believe that this might be a factor in women’s difficulties with sexual arousal and desire.) [4]

The women maintained these gains in sexual desire a year later, and that they continued to practice mindfulness because they wanted to reap its benefits in other areas of their lives.