Super Connected™ Boosts

Super Connected™ Boost

Super Connected™ Boosts are natural feel-good activities that restore dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin—the same “happy chemicals” triggered by social media apps on smartphones. But unlike endless scrolling, these boosts don’t leave you drained—they lift you up and keep you shining! Parents attending our Super Connected events started asking, “What positive activities can we offer to replace our children’s smartphones?”

A collection of simple, powerful activities designed to help us reconnect with ourselves and others! Each Super Connected™ Boost is created to gently restore your brain’s ‘Happiness Chemicals’: dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.

The smartphone apps we use are designed to overstimulate these chemicals. Over time, this leave us feeling anxious, depleted, and disconnected. Doctors are now warning of dopamine depletion caused by constant digital use—especially in young people.

Curated by Super Connected founder Tim Arnold, these boosters offer a different way. A chance to feel good again—naturally.

Before you begin: Turn your smartphone off. Let all the energy in the room come from you, not from a device trying to fill you up.

Choose a category below and get started! Come to Super Connected. Come to life.

Dopamine Boosts (Achievement, Novelty, Rewards)

1. Wim Hof Boost – 30 Breath Exercise

Breathe in deeply, then exhale fully—30 times. This powerful breathing exercise floods your body with oxygen, awakening your senses and boosting energy. Inspired by the Wim Hof Method, it stimulates dopamine, increases focus, and builds resilience. Finish with a long exhale and hold—feel the rush of vitality.

Studies have confirmed that mindfulness practices, such as meditation, help treat depression. meditation has a powerful effect on serotonin levels in the brain, as well as on your gamma-aminobutyric acid.

This is, without doubt, the best way to begin each day, instead of immediately grabbing our smartphone when we wake up, to get that quick dopamine hit from a reaction on our social media feed or that email we are still waiting for a reply on. The more we do this, the less so called 'social' media platforms begin to mean us, and the more we begin to reconnect with ourselves and others.

2. 90s Mosh Boost – Full Body Release

Blast a song, jump, shake, and move like it’s a ’90s mosh pit. No thinking, just pure release. The combination of music, movement and intensity triggers a dopamine surge, leaving you exhilarated. No thinking—just energy and freedom!

After three years mentoring young musicians, Tim realised something striking—young people genuinely love the way we lived in the 90s. The reason? A carefree nature and wild abandon in the real world that couldn't be further from the digital 'chop-block' so many kids have grown up with in the 21st century. Young people want mess, magic and moments. They want the offbeat, the unexpected, the imperfect joy of being alive and in the room. Not optimised timelines or filtered realities, but raw, human experience they can feel—not just scroll through. Get moshing!

Suggested song to mosh to: Jocasta – Change Me

3. Draw a Feeling Boost – Express in 5 Minutes

Grab a pen and let your emotions take shape on paper—no rules, no right or wrong. This rapid creative burst taps into novelty and expression, giving your brain a dopamine hit. The result isn’t about perfection but about capturing a moment in motion.

Remember, drawing is there to express the things we cannot explain with words. As Francis Bacon said "If you say it, why paint it?". Enjoy!

"We are educating people out of their creative capacities… I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it."
- Sir Ken Robinson

4. The Hemingway Boost – Write a Story in 6 Words

Inspired by Ernest Hemingway's famous six-word novel—“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”—this boost helps us to develop inference and imagination. Our brains instinctively begin to fill in the gaps as we read, unlike the direct statements we often see on our smartphones which simply show us information. This boost makes both the writer and the reader equally creative. It’s not just a great exercise in storytelling—it also helps to rebuild a crucial mental skill in the reader that’s been eroded by the endless brief direct statements we see in our smartphone apps.

According to UCLA Professor-in-Residence of Education Maryanne Wolfman, Social media apps, designed for speed and surface-level engagement, have diminished our ability to reflect, imagine, and read between the lines. As UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield notes, “less attention and time has been allocated to slower, time-demanding deep reading processes, like inference, critical analysis and empathy”—skills we need not just for learning, but for truly connecting with others. Sharing your six-word story with someone else invites them into that same imaginative space, restoring human depth, curiosity and shared meaning. Because reading at its fullest, puts background knowledge, inference, deduction, empathy, perspective taking, critical analysis, all together in a way that our short-form Whatsapp tap 'n scroll messaging or 'X' posting can never do!

5. Singing Boost – Singing in a Round

Find a friend (or a group) and sing a simple melody, starting at different times. The overlapping harmonies create an immersive, connected soundscape, rewarding your brain with dopamine as you stay in sync. A playful, ancient way to connect through rhythm and voice. Stuck for what to sing? Try the la la la’s in the chorus from Tim’s song “Start A Conversation”.

Serotonin Boosts (Mood, Gratitude, Relaxation, Flow)

1. Flame Boost – Focus on a Candle

Light a candle, sit still, and focus on the flickering flame. No distractions—just you and the glow. This simple practice induces calm, slows your breath, and increases serotonin, leaving you more relaxed and centred. Let the flame hold your attention as the world fades away.

2. The Lindsay Kemp Boost - Gratitude

Inspired by the legendary dancer and mime artist Lindsay Kemp, who worked with Tim in the final years of his life, this boost is about fully embodying gratitude.

Stand up, open your hands towards the ground and lift your arms as slowly as possible thanking the ground we stand on, to the sky and everything else in between. Lindsay Kemp used to do this with the music of Edward Elgar's Nimrod playing along and we recommend this too! Keep repeating raising your arms, up and down and end the boost with arms outstretched to the heavens!

As practiced between the audience and the cast at the end of Super Connected events, this boost leaves you feeling lighter and more in tune with life and those who you are sharing space with.

At the neurochemical level, gratitude acts as a catalyst for serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine – the ones that manage our emotions, anxiety, and immediate stress responses. Whether you do it alone or in a group, gratitude is a real act of magic that cannot be reproduced on a smartphone.

With thanks to Daniela Maccari from The Lindsay Kemp Company

3. Time Travel Boost – Letter from Future Self

Write a letter from your future self, thanking your present self for today’s actions. “Thank you for making time to rest, to create, to dream.” This exercise brings a sense of perspective, boosting serotonin through self-compassion and motivation.

4. Ancestral Boost – Held by Generations

Close your eyes and imagine your parents placing a hand on your shoulders. Then their parents. Then theirs. Visualise generations standing behind you, each one supporting the next. This deep-rooted sense of belonging and connection increases serotonin, grounding you in history and presence.

5. Trust Boost – Blind Drawing Exercise

One person closes their eyes while their partner describes what to draw. With no visual guidance, trust builds between both. This playful, calming activity creates focus, laughter, and a serotonin boost through shared experience and creativity.

Oxytocin Boosts (Connection, Touch, Trust, Shared Joy)

1. Eye Contact Boost – 20-Second Connection

Sit with someone and look into their eyes for 20 seconds—no words, just presence. The initial discomfort fades into connection, as oxytocin rises. This simple act strengthens trust, empathy, and the feeling of being seen.

2. Blind Trust Drawing

Just like the Trust Boost, but with an oxytocin focus—building trust, laughter, and deepening connection. The vulnerability of guiding and being guided creates a powerful shared experience.

3. Storytelling Boost – Echo & Build a Story

One person starts with a sentence, and the next person echoes part of it before adding their own. The group weaves a story together, reinforcing oxytocin through imagination, laughter, and shared creativity. A playful way to bond through words.

4. Mirror Boost – Silent Synchronised Movement

Partner A moves slowly—hands, face, or full body—while Partner B mirrors them as precisely as possible. After a minute, switch. No talking, just silent attunement. This nonverbal exercise builds deep connection, releasing oxytocin through synchronised movement.

5. Heart Boost – Breath & Self-Connection

Place one hand on your heart, another on your belly. Breathe deeply—inhale 4 sec, hold 4 sec, exhale 6 sec. This grounding technique soothes the nervous system, increasing oxytocin and fostering a sense of warmth, safety, and self-connection. Even better - do it with your bare feet on the earth. Get grounding!