Chapter 3: Gratitude
10 Insights from the Super Connected Tour: Rebalancing Digital & Analogue Life. Tool Three in the 'Super Connected Toolkit': Gratitude
It’s now well known that smartphones and social media trigger rapid dopamine release, creating an addictive cycle of craving and instant gratification that short-circuits natural reward processes. It causes anxiety and stress.
But we also have our own natural and healthier method of releasing dopamine too; by practicing gratitude.
When gratitude is expressed and/or received, the brain releases dopamine and serotonin, two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions. It regulates cortisol production in the brain and reduces anxiety and stress.
Super Connected events conclude with the ‘For You’ ritual - 3-minute salutation of gratitude, created by the legendary movement and dance pioneer Lindsay kemp. Lindsay and I were working together when I was writing the songs and script for Super Connected. He’d not worked on an album/film project since Kate Bush’s The Line, The Cross and The Curve, so it was an honour to share ideas with him during my creative journey. In June of 2018, Lindsay and I staged a multimedia live arts installation of my song ‘What Love Would Want’ at Manchester’s Bridgewater hall.
This turned out to be Lindsay’s final dance. His last project.
It’s traditional in music and theatre to show gratitude to performers with applause. But Lindsay taught me how important it is to show gratitude to every single thing.
Every person, element and spirit responsible for the occasion - everything from the musicians to the ushers, the staff in the box office and the bartenders preparing for the audience to return after the main event. The roots in the ground to the heavens up above - it takes a true communal spirit to make memorable experiences. Our infinite circle of artists in ritual. The audience thank us and we thank the audience, as one.
Lindsay never got to se or hear Super Connected. He died a year before it was completed. But his spirit endures in the shows, and that is where my gratitude always starts when it comes to this fascinating project that brought me new love and new life.
The prima ballerina, and our dancer in the film, Daniela Maccari, is the custodian of Lindsay’s ‘For You’ ritual, which we practice at the end of Super Connected shows.
Gratitude is an antidote to the feelings of darkness that can come from spending too much time doom scrolling on a smartphone, but actually, it’s an antidote to most of the world’s ills. In practice, gratitude gives to the giver. My gratitude continues to grow for everyone who made this tour possible - the best time of my life.
Lear more about Lindsay Kemp’s Last Project: What Love Would Want
Musician and Filmmaker Tim Arnold has researched screen addiction and social media’s effects on mental health since 2017, culminating in the critically acclaimed album, film and theatre show, Super Connected - Nihal Arthanayake, BBC 5 LIVE
Listen to the album here and be among the first to see the film by signing up here.