Unfortunately, we live in a stressful world, and stress can reduce your sex drive. When you feel stress, your body will react with a rapid heart rate and higher blood pressure. Sex isn’t necessary for fighting off a threat, so prolonged stress can decrease your sex drive. Fortunately, though, you can boost your libido with these four tips:
The Correlation Between Stress and Sex Drive
When stress interferes with your love life, it can cause relationship issues and create low self-confidence. Improving your stress management skills is an essential step towards happy, healthy relationships.
Continuous stress can cause mental effects like feeling overwhelmed or distracted. This can prevent you from wanting sex or being present when you’re getting it on with your partner. If you don’t cope well with your stress response, it can prolong your low libido and cause issues in the bedroom .
Tips for Coping With Stress and Boosting Libido
To get your steamy sex life back, you have to take control of your stress. Finding ways to manage your stress is the best way to regain control of your life, so here are some ways to reduce your stress and boost your libido while you’re at it.
1. Eat aphrodisiac foods for stress relief.
Excess stress can cause anxiety and irritability, which may make you snap at people without a good reason. The good news is that taking care of yourself can help you control your emotions. Certain foods both improve libido and reduce stress too. Here are some of the aphrodisiac foods you should try:
- Salmon
- Oysters
- Eggs
- Asparagus
- Avocados
- Celery
- Blueberries
- Watermelon
- Dark Chocolate
- Spinach
2. Practice stress management.
If you think that stress gets in the way of your sex life, you may wonder how to get back to a solid foundation in your relationship. Try to notice when your body is in a “flight” state. Stress management techniques can help you do this — and they control the hormonal reactions of chronic anxiety.
You can also use anxiety reduction strategies to stop your emotions from getting in the way of your sex life. When you start to feel stress coming on, try one of these techniques to manage stress:
- Journaling
- Meditation
- Body scan muscle relaxation
- Breathing exercises
3. Exercise with your partner.
Exercise is a great way to both reduce stress and boost your self-esteem. Your job and home life may get in the way of alone time with your significant other, but working out together can get your heart pumping and help you realize your attraction to your partner.
You don’t have to leave the house to squeeze in a workout, but you can if you want to. Try yoga in the privacy of your own home for inspiration in the bedroom or look into exercise classes that both you and your partner can take together.
4. Focus on touch during sex.
In intimate moments, you might feel a lot of pressure to perform, but sometimes, your partner’s touch alone can give you relief. Touch is a powerful stress reliever — even without having sex. If you struggle with your libido, cuddling isn’t just great foreplay; it’s an excellent way to show your partner affection without jumping into bed.
Hugging or cuddling someone you love releases oxytocin, which can knock out feelings of stress. You can also find pleasure and intimacy with massages or any type of touch that brings you closer. Over time, this intimate touch may lead to stress reduction and higher libido.
Don’t let life’s stressors get in the way of your sex life. Try these stress management tips to boost your libido and improve your life — both in and out of the bedroom.
