Unlock Ultimate Wellness: Sensory Diet for Adults with Powerful Activities & Examples

In today’s fast-paced world, our senses are constantly bombarded by stimuli-from the hum of city traffic and the glow of digital screens to the chaos of busy offices and family life. These sensory inputs can sometimes overwhelm us, leading to stress, anxiety, and difficulty focusing. A well-curated sensory diet for adults offers a personalized plan of activities and strategies designed to balance and regulate sensory inputs, promoting focus, emotional well-being, and overall quality of life.

Understanding Sensory Diets

A sensory diet is not about nutrition or food-it’s about creating a structured regimen of sensory experiences tailored to an individual’s unique sensory needs. It is a personalized plan that includes specific activities tailored to an individual’s sensory needs. It aims to provide sensory input in a structured and consistent manner. Such diets are beneficial for people who may be sensory-seeking or sensory-avoiding. Sensory diets provide regular, structured sensory input throughout the day to help individuals maintain an optimal level of alertness and engagement, often referred to as the “just right” zone.

Benefits of a Sensory Diet for Adults

Implementing a sensory diet for adults brings a host of benefits that go beyond simple comfort.

Improved Self-Regulation: When overstimulated or under-stimulated, adults with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) may become easily frustrated, anxious, or overwhelmed, with difficulty calming down without specific sensory tools or routines. Engaging in planned sensory diet activities such as mindful breathing or tactile stimulation helps individuals better manage their emotional responses to overwhelming situations.
Enhanced Focus and Concentration: Adults experiencing sensory processing difficulties often struggle with concentration. A sensory diet helps by providing structured sensory input to balance these symptoms, boosting focus and self-regulation.
Reduced Sensory Overload: A strategic balance of stimulating and calming activities in your sensory diet for adults can prevent sensory overload before it happens.
Increased Emotional Well-Being: Regular engagement in sensory balancing techniques can foster a sense of control and calm, elevating overall mood and confidence.

The Eight Sensory Systems

These eight sensory systems work together to support physical function, learning, behavior, and emotional regulation.

Visual System (Sight): The visual system is essential for reading, navigating environments, recognizing faces and objects, and coordinating movement.
Auditory System (Hearing): This system underlies language development, communication, and safety awareness (e.g., responding to alarms or approaching vehicles).
Olfactory System (Smell): Detects and processes odors. Smell contributes to taste, safety (e.g., detecting smoke or spoiled food), and emotional memory.
Gustatory System (Taste): Important for nutrition, safety, and enjoyment of food.
Tactile System (Touch): Essential for body awareness, emotional comfort, and protection.
Vestibular System (Balance & Movement): Fundamental for balance, posture, eye coordination, and motor planning.
Proprioceptive System (Body Awareness): Supports coordinated movement, self-regulation, and motor planning. It’s the reason we can walk without looking at our feet or apply the right pressure when holding a pencil.
Interoceptive System: Crucial for self-regulation, emotional awareness, and bodily functions. Difficulties in this system can lead to challenges in identifying feelings (e.g., anxiety vs. hunger).

Creating a Personalized Sensory Diet for Adults

Creating a sensory diet for adults requires consideration of the lifestyle of an adult. Even for adults, completing a sensory checklist, questionnaire, or survey is important. It will insure all sensory areas are identified, and all interests and preferences are considered when working on the development of a sensory diet for adults.

Read also: Regulation Through Sensory Input

Identify Sensory Preferences: Consider the sensory likes and dislikes of the individual. This can include preferences for certain textures, sounds, or movements.
Set Goals: Establish clear goals for implementing the sensory diet. Objectives may include improving focus, self-regulation, or motor skills.
Select Activities: Choose a variety of sensory activities that align with the identified preferences and goals. It is advisable to include activities that target different senses.
Create a Schedule: Develop a timeline for incorporating selected activities. This can help in maintaining consistency and tracking progress.

Another tool to assist in creating a sensory diet for adults, is keeping a sensory diary to help identify personal needs triggers, and dislikes. A sensory diary, or a sensory journal, is much like a food journal might be used to figure out food triggers that impact headaches or skin issues. Just like a journal to identify what food stimulated a physical change in the body, a sensory journal can be a helpful tool to identify sensory predictions of regulation, organization status, calmness, or ability to participate in every day activities. For example, if you are a school field trip chaperone for your kindergartener’s fieldtrip to the musical instrument factory, you might be on heavy overload on auditory input in the way of loud noises, screeching children, a bumpy bus ride. This can put you into a state of headaches, difficulty focusing, disorganized thoughts, emotional state of dysregulation, and overall inability to function for the rest of the day. When you look back at your sensory journal, you can see that all of the auditory, vestibular input was very chaotic, abrupt, and unexpected.

The scheduling of sensory diet activities is an important part of the sensory diet design when attempting to be proactive versus reactive. Scheduling the use of sensory strategies throughout the day will help keep the senses regulated in order to avoid sensory overload. At times, this threshold gets crossed, sensory overload ensues, and the reactive stage happens. As an adult, this is bound to happen.

Incorporating Sensory Diet Activities into Daily Routine

Integrating sensory diet activities into everyday life is vital for their effectiveness. Finding natural opportunities for activities throughout the day can facilitate this process.

Morning Routine: Begin the day with sensory-rich activities. Consider incorporating calming exercises to prepare for the day ahead.
School or Work Hours: Incorporate short sensory breaks during school or work. This can enhance focus and productivity.
Afternoon Activities: Schedule engaging activities that allow for movement and exploration. Aim for a blend of physical and tactile experiences.
Evening Routine: Conclude the day with relaxation activities to help transition to bedtime.

Each individual's sensory diet may vary based on personal preferences and needs. Focusing on integrating sensory experiences throughout the day can promote stability and well-being.

Sensory Diet Activities for Adults

A sensory diet for adults may include a variety of strategies embedded into daily life. Integrating a diverse range of sensory diet activities for adults can transform how you interact with your environment. An adult sensory diet is all about discovering what works for an individual, as each person’s needs are unique, and may change over time.

Read also: Autism and Sensory Needs

Here are some examples of sensory activities categorized under proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, visual, and interoception experiences.

Proprioceptive Activities

Proprioceptive activities focus on body awareness and movement. Heavy work in the form of proprioceptive input supports regulation needs.

Heavy Work: Short “heavy work” tasks like organizing the pantry or tidying up toys are effective.
Push and Pull: Push and pull heavy objects.
Carry That Weight: Carry heavy items like groceries or books.
Jump!: Engage in jumping jacks or rebounding on a mini-trampoline.
Reassuring Pressure: Get a firm massage.
Active exercises: Most of these ideas are exercise based so they are beneficial to the health as well! As the head changes positions, and the body moves, input is regulated in the inner ear.

Vestibular Activities

Vestibular strategies involve movement for regulation. As the head changes positions, and the body moves, input is regulated in the inner ear. Vestibular input is the building block of all of the other systems.

Move that body! Any type of movement will stimulate the vestibular receptors, but spinning, swinging, and hanging upside down provide the most intense, longest lasting input.
Swing: Use a rocking chair or hammock.
Spin: Have him spin using a Sit n’ Spin, Dizzy Disc Jr., or office chair.
Get upside down: Practice yoga poses like downward dog.
Swing and roll: Do somersaults or cartwheels.

Tactile Activities

Tactile activities involve touch and texture experiences. Tactile strategies involve sensory touch stimulation for self-regulation, but it also involves tactile defensiveness too. While some adults crave this input, others respond negatively to touch.

Fidget toys: Try using fidget tools, texture boards, or even creating art with various materials.
Food and Drink: Explore different food textures.
Messy Play with Textures: Play with foamy soap or shaving cream, and add sand for extra texture.
Dress Up: Wear comfortable clothing with preferred textures.
Tactile Hobbies: Sculpt, sew, weave, crochet, or knit.
Get in touch with nature: Encourage him to walk barefoot in the grass (avoiding pesticide applications), sand, or dirt.

Auditory Activities

Auditory strategies can reduce or eliminate noise for improved self-regulation in adults.

Listening to music: Listening to curated playlists, ambient soundtracks, or nature sounds can soothe an overactive auditory system.
Get outside and listen: Go to the beach or sit still and listen to the rain, thunder, and so on.
Play a listening game: Find calming, focusing music.
Encourage musicianship: Active participation with a drum, autoharp, electrical music devices, harp, etc.
Create pleasant sounds: Give him some control. For a child with auditory sensitivity, predicting and controlling sounds can be very helpful. Encourage him to turn on the vacuum cleaner, help him pop the balloons after a birthday party, anticipating the noise.

Olfactory Activities

Olfactory strategies involve using the sense of smell or input to the nose to either provide calm or alertness for self-regulation. Some adults have a scent sensitivity that is related to candles, certain oils (even cooking oils), fabric softeners, or allergens. Again, each person has their own individual needs and preferences, so a customized diet is helpful.

Smell stuff! Explore scents with your child to find ones that work best to meet your goal (to soothe him or to wake him up). Everyone has different preferences, but vanilla and rose scents are generally calming. Peppermint and citrus are usually alerting.
Scent play: Play a smelling game with your child.

Gustatory Activities

Gustatory strategies can help to alert or calm individuals, simply by the sensory input provided either through the texture or flavor of the food, or the mouth movement needed to consume it.

Give strong-tasting foods before introducing new ones: Strong tastes can stimulate the mouth of an undersensitive child and make him more willing to try new foods.
Play a taste game: If your child does not have a strong negative reaction to refined sugar (becomes very "hyper" or sleepy), get an assortment of flavored jellybeans. Eat one at a time, and have her guess which flavor it is.
Involve him in food preparation: Children are more likely to taste something if they help make it. Let your child help you grow fruit, vegetables, and herbs, and plan dinner and shop. Give him a sense of control: let him choose between chicken or fish, string beans or sugar snaps, potato or rice. Then let your child put the meat in the baking pan, break off vegetable tips and dump in water, and so on.
Play with your food: A so-called picky eater may be more willing to eat “rocks and trees” than meatballs and broccoli.

Visual activities

Visual strategies involve visual input for self-regulation.

Avoid excess visuals: Hide clutter in bins or boxes or behind curtains or doors-a simple, solid-color curtain hung over a bookshelf instantly reduces visual clutter. In rooms where the child spends a lot of time, try to use solid colored rugs instead of patterned ones.
Be color-sensitive: changing lighting: a lamp light for reducing visual input vs.

Interoception Activities

Interoception strategies involve understanding and feeling what is going on inside of the body. Understanding how the body feels and how it reacts to certain sensory strategies can help to identify what is alerting and calming to the individual.

Monitoring and Adjusting

Implementing a sensory diet requires ongoing observation and flexibility. Regularly monitoring progress and making necessary adjustments can enhance the effectiveness of the diet and cater to individual needs.

Observing and Tracking Progress: Keeping track of how well the sensory diet is meeting specific goals is vital. Individuals can note changes in behavior, mood, and overall functioning. Regular monitoring helps in understanding what activities are effective and which may require modification. A daily or weekly log can be beneficial for tracking progress.
Making Necessary Adjustments: Adjusting the sensory diet based on observations is crucial for optimizing its effectiveness. By regularly assessing and refining the sensory diet, individuals can ensure it remains relevant and beneficial.

The Role of Occupational Therapists

An occupational therapist (OT) develops a sensory diet in collaboration with the individual, tailoring the plan to their preferences, routines, goals, and nervous system profile. While you don’t need an occupational therapist to begin exploring sensory strategies, working with one can be very beneficial. An OT with training in sensory integration can help identify the sensory systems a person is over- or under-responsive to and whether they tend to seek or avoid certain sensory inputs.

Sensory Diet for ADHD

If you or your child is with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the constant battle with distractions can be exhausting. A sensory diet can be incredibly powerful tools for kids with ADHD. A sensory diet specifically supports ADHD symptoms through targeted sensory inputs with calming, organizing, or alerting effects.

Games: Erika recommends games that require listening for specific phrases, like red light green light, Simon says, or freeze dance.
Breath work activities: Erika suggests breath work activities, like bubbles, straw games, or pinwheels.
Proprioceptive Activities: To counter this, organizing sensory activities-especially proprioceptive ones with deep pressure-can help maintain attention and provide a recharge. Short “heavy work” tasks like organizing the pantry or tidying up toys are effective, as are sensory tools like Soundsory® headphones paired with a weighted blanket in a cozy sensory corner.

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