Alongside the scenic trails and open spaces of Lafayette, Colorado, The Peaks at Old Laramie Trail welcomes the senior living community. With 7.2 million Americans aged 65+ living with Alzheimer's, The Peaks needs to ensure it can bring the full force of its capabilities to bear when handling emotional wellness tools, especially in groups so delicate.
This article will provide you and other caregivers with sensory grounding techniques to practice, helping to alleviate stress and encourage mindfulness for seniors. Discover calming sensory routines and grounding strategies for aging adults, and learn how simple prompts and consistent steps can help support a senior's attention and comfort in the long term.
As numerous factors can contribute to strong cognitive health, having as many techniques on your side as possible can offer significant help with stress relief for older adults.
Making a substantial change in your life can have a profound impact on your mental wellness, and therefore, the staff at communities like The Peaks must be aware of the best ways to care for those in their community. The first of these is in the form of grounding techniques.
Sensory grounding involves using familiar sensory notes, such as sights or sounds, to make the brain feel safe by prompting it with things in its immediate environment. Doing this can pull it away from the fear of the unknown and help it focus clearly on what is currently.
Touch and sound can often allow people to get a sense of their surroundings more quickly, while scent can usually overwhelm, so one should exercise caution when using it.
The process can work better for some than others. For example, with older adults, you may want to take less time doing this, keeping each step under one minute long, and do it in a much more familiar location when possible. The process can give a sense of safety to the performer and help to prevent overwhelming.
At the same time, help the sufferer focus on their breathing. Use count-ins on both inhale and exhale, but don't label it a technique. Just go to four or five, then repeat the same for exhaling to give people a basic method they can use at home themselves.
Touch is a simple concept with a significant impact. By incorporating touch into your mental wellness process, you can quickly orient a person despite whatever else might be going on in their time in a senior living community. Ensure that you have consent, and then use it as a grounding technique to help bring someone out of a trance where they may have focused on only a possibly unhealthy future.
Using the senses in this way has been repeatedly demonstrated, as shown by Mario & Roberts (2025). Not only can this help the individual, but it can also often reduce inconsiderate or maladaptive behavior from the senior, making it a valuable process.
You can also use feelings beyond simple pressure sensitivity. Consider also using the following to distract or remind a senior:
At the same time, forms of massage therapy could also promote mental wellness, either by diminishing the impact of depression and similar issues or by providing a new type of touch to focus on.
Sounds with a steadier rhythm, such as soft instrumentals or calmer songs from a resident's youth, can often help people calm down. If their tempo is well-placed, this can often simply help, as the music serves as a way to count the breaths in and out.
Despite music's capabilities, keep the volume low enough that you do not block out conversations or instructions from staff. You will then ensure the safety of others during their stay in the community.
Similarly, the regular activities offered by Vibrant Life allow older adults to have further opportunities to derive satisfaction from the sense of musical recognition.
If necessary, look into investigating the use of headphones. You can then ensure that the music is personalized to fit only a singular resident.
Add smaller tasks to a person's daily routines to allow them to not only derive something from a single chat with you, but also to enable them to reap a similar benefit in the long term.
These tasks should not be complicated. Maybe two or three instructions at the most, requiring only a small record card's worth of text for a person to comprehend what they need to do thoroughly. Similarly, it can allow a verbal instructor to repeat the simple task more straightforwardly.
Seniors can also use alarm clocks and calendars to help them prepare for the day ahead. In a well-stocked apartment, this can do a lot to ensure that you or a loved one doesn't miss out.
Be mindful of seniors who may be involved in practices that could cause discomfort. If, during sensory grounding processes, they start coughing or feel more agitation than usual, stop immediately.
Similarly, test scented oils or other solvents on people before introducing them to a larger room of others.
Also look out for:
These could all potentially be signs of a mental wellness condition.
Sensory grounding techniques provide an ideal opportunity for you to support a loved one in overcoming or managing a challenging period in their life. Use our brief outlines to build a personalized set of guidelines for an older adult you know.
At The Peaks at Old Laramie Trail, our Assisted Living and Memory Care amenities are conveniently located near each other. So, use this as an opportunity to ask our staff what both entail. Then, book a tour to learn more about how to help you or someone you know avoid anxiety moving forward.