Seniors

Seniors often experience many challenges, especially when they have to transition away from the familiar environment of home into a care facility. In this experience, seniors will reconnect with happy memories from their past.  Quite often, their memories are stimulated by hearing others share their own experiences.  Shared or similar memories can create new friends in an environment where seniors may feel lonely or disconnected.

Happiness and the Five Senses will help seniors access their present happiness through tapping into long-term memory. They will connect to others and to themselves by sharing their experiences and discovering commonalities with those around them.

A Story:

Several years ago, while facilitating this workshop​ in a senior living facility, I noticed a gentleman ​who ​sat in a wheelchair, his daughter next to him.

He didn’t recognize her and the pain of his lack of recognition was evident in her face. Someone in the audience shared a memory, and soon several other participants joined in. The gentleman in the wheelchair didn’t really participate, he listened with a blank look on his face.

Eventually, one of the memories shared was about seeing family – how that brought so much joy. The man smiled and raised his hand and shared about his children, a son and a daughter. The daughter put her hand lovingly on his shoulder and he turned and looked at her and smiled. “When did you get here?” he asked. Her face lit up. He had connected to a memory and to her.