Mindfulness Exercises for Men with Psychological Erectile Dysfunction

Published: 2025-05-04

Updated: 2025-05-06

4 mins

Whether it’s from stress, illness, or anxiety about sex, there are so many reasons why it may be hard for you to get an erection from time to time. Erectile function is just as mental as it is a physical experience. Still, talking about it out loud may feel a bit awkward. If you’re looking for ways to manage occasional erectile dysfunction (ED), mindfulness exercises may be the way to go. 

Mindfulness exercises are one way to refocus and relax the mind before engaging in sexual activity. The way you practice mindfulness is unique to you. This can look like taking a few minutes out of the day to meditate, practice breathing techniques, or explore new ways to become aware of your body in space and time.

What are the Common Causes of ED?

Erectile dysfunction is trouble getting and maintaining an erection. An erection occurs when blood rushes to two erection chambers in the penis during sexual arousal.

The following are a few of the most common causes of erectile dysfunction:

• Stress

• Trauma

• Heart disease

• High blood pressure

• Diabetes

• Atherosclerosis (blocked arteries)

• Depression

• Medications

Performance anxiety is a common cause of ED related to stress around sex. Some men may experience premature ejaculation, which increases performance anxiety with a partner. Some lifestyle habits like smoking, excessively drinking alcohol, and experiencing obesity may also increase your risk of erectile dysfunction.

How is ED Treated?

Depending on the cause of your ED, a healthcare provider may recommend making lifestyle changes before starting you on medications. Incorporating healthy habits like cutting back on alcohol consumption, getting adequate rest, and being more physically active may help improve ED symptoms.

If changing your lifestyle doesn’t make a difference, reach out to a licensed healthcare provider online or in person, who can prescribe you medications to treat your ED symptoms. Medications like Viagra and Cialis can help treat ED symptoms. Your healthcare provider may recommend practicing mindfulness along with ED medication to manage the psychological effects of ED.

How Can Mindfulness Help with Managing ED?

Mindfulness is a series of exercises designed to increase awareness of your body, mind, and your surrounding environment. It’s a practice that encourages acknowledgement of where you are and how you feel physically and emotionally in the present moment. Taking a few minutes every day to practice some of the following mindfulness exercises may help reduce ED symptoms and improve your overall sex life.

5 Mindfulness Practices to Help with ED 

1. Deep breathing

Breath awareness increases attention to the senses and can increase pleasure during sexual activity. Practice breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly as you feel your abdomen fill up with air.

2. Body scan meditation

This form of meditation involves straightening the back and having the feet planted into the ground in a comfortable sitting or standing position. You want to close your eyes or maintain a soft gaze as you take deep breaths in and out. 

While breathing, take note of the sensations happening in your body from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Take your time noticing all the small sensations you feel and letting go of any tension you may be holding in your body.

3. Grounding

Grounding techniques are often recommended by health experts for symptom relief related to other health conditions like anxiety, chronic pain, and inflammation. The basis of grounding is to connect your body directly with the Earth by exposing bare feet or hands to the ground outdoors. Health experts believe spending time outdoors and connecting to the Earth may have antioxidant effects on the body.

4. Gazing medication

If closing your eyes doesn’t help you with meditation, this practice may work better. Sometimes all you need is something concrete to focus on to calm your mind. Choose an object within your line of vision in the room you’re in. Keep your focus on the object softly while relaxing your jaw and other tense parts of your body. 

5. Stretching

Gentle stretching can help increase breath flow by expanding the chest. Practice breathing while gently stretching your muscles by dropping your head from side to side, moving your shoulders, and reaching for your toes.

What are Some Mindfulness Techniques to Help with Sex?

Practicing mindfulness during sex can improve the experience for both you and your partner. Mindfulness allows you to notice the emotions of the other person and your own waves of pleasure. Consider the following techniques to build up pleasure, trust, and possibly enhance erectile function during sex. With each one, it's important to move through them slowly and have the consent of your partner before starting.

1. Sensation focus exercises

It’s best not to go into sex with certain expectations that can lead to performance anxiety and erectile dysfunction. Instead, first take sex out of the equation, focus on the senses by exploring your body or the body of your partner without touching the genitals or obvious erogenous zones. You can also incorporate touching the body and playing around with different textures. You or your partner should explore one at a time.

2. Mindful touching

You and your partner can experimentally touch each other at the same time to further explore the senses. Communicate with your partner to learn more about the senses they respond well to. This practice can help with building intimacy and comfort with your partner to elevate the stress many men experience when it comes to performing well during sex.

3. Minimize distractions

Your environment plays a big role in how relaxed and ready your brain feels for sex. Try to minimize distractions like TV noises, phone calls, and loud music that take you out of the present moment.

What are the Benefits of Mindfulness on ED?

Health experts have found that practicing mindfulness can improve sexual satisfaction, sexual arousal, and intimacy between partners. Mindfulness exercises can help increase self-esteem by relaxing the mind. Your confidence grows as the mind adjusts to decentering negative thoughts of doubt.

How Do You Get Rid of Performance Anxiety?

Mindfulness is all about becoming aware of both positive and negative thoughts and emotions. One of the main culprits when it comes to ED is only focusing on negative thoughts and feelings.

When experiencing performance anxiety, your first thought may be to ignore anxious thoughts as much as possible. However, not dealing with them may do more harm than good. Start by identifying those thoughts and accepting them for what they are. 

Performance anxiety and ED can be difficult topics to discuss with a partner or even a healthcare provider. Try your best to have compassion for yourself as you sort out how to best manage ED symptoms and performance anxiety.

When Do You See a Healthcare Provider for ED?

If your ED symptoms are interfering with your sex life, reach out to a healthcare provider to assess your treatment options. A healthcare provider will perform a physical exam and ask questions about your health history and current symptoms to determine the best treatment plan for you.

Does Rex MD Help with Erectile Dysfunction?

Mindfulness helps you take care of your mental health, which can result in improvements in your physical health and well-being as well. To help you get closer to feeling like your best self, Rex MD offers affordable and accessible ED treatment for men who qualify. 

With Rex MD erectile dysfunction treatment, you can gain access to licensed healthcare providers who can prescribe FDA-approved medications like Cialis (tadalafil) and Viagra (sildenafil) to treat erectile dysfunction.

To get started, fill out our online assessment today to take the first step towards finding ED treatment suitable for you.