Around the world, rates of depression and anxiety are at an all-time high. According to the World Health Organization, over 264 million people worldwide are affected by depression.  Between the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, and economic instability, it seems like once we’ve reassured ourselves on one front, another issue comes up. Plus, over 80 percent of low- and middle-income people do not receive treatment for their depression.

While exercise is no substitute for the help of a clinical professional in severe cases, there is also evidence that a regular exercise regimen can benefit mental health. This is because exercise directly affects our brain! Here’s the science you need to know to telegraph your mind some feel-good messages, plus our favorite exercises to perform during social distancing.

How Exercise Affects the Brain

Exercise helps our brain in several ways. Psychology Today reports that even a short walk causes the production of feel-good hormones called endorphins, as well as enkephalins. These help our short-term problems seem more manageable. “The simple act of focusing on exercise can give us a break from current concerns and damaging self-talk,” writes psychologist Sarah Gingell.

In addition, observation of mice has shown researchers that exercise might cause new neurons to form in the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that regulates emotion and supports our memory. Antidepressant medications used over time also stimulate the growth of the hippocampus. That means a habit of exercising might have a similar effect on parts of the brain as taking medicines.

Exercises that Help Depression

Aerobic exercise has been proven in studies to help with depression and mental health. Aerobics increase blood flow to the brain and stimulate the adrenal system, among other effects on the body. The Official Journal of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry shared a literature review of many studies researching the effect of exercise on depression symptoms. One group of clinically depressed patients walked 20-40 minutes three times per week for six weeks and experienced an improvement in symptoms compared to other groups. Another study focused on cycling which significantly improved symptoms. Overall, studies support that aerobic exercise alleviates depression. Popular forms of aerobics include:

o   Walking

o   Jogging

o   Swimming

o   Cycling

o   Gardening

o   Dancing

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) shares that walking is the most popular form of exercise and it has grown more popular in recent years. Sixty percent of people attain their recommended aerobic exercise by walking for fun, or to reach a necessary destination, like work. Forty to fifty percent of people will walk to a shop, school, or church if the location is within a mile of their home.

Best Exercises During Social Distancing

What effect does social distancing have on the need for exercise? Bloomberg shared graphs of data collected by Apple, monitoring peoples’ physical activity through their devices. This data showed anywhere from a 50-80 percent decrease in the amount people walked worldwide during the first wave of the pandemic.

However, outdoor exercise isn’t only possible but encouraged during social distancing. Sunlight has major positive effects on mood and gives you necessary Vitamin D. You can still walk, jog, or ride a bike outdoors as long as you maintain 6 feet of distance between yourself and others. Essentially, try to find an isolated place to exercise.

If you will be near others or don’t know if distancing is possible, the US Department of Health and Human Services recommends a face covering. Also, don’t forget the sunscreen! Broad-spectrum sunscreen is important to protect against skin cancer, which affects five million Americans a year. It’s no good to fix one problem while causing another, right?

If you live in an urban area or don’t otherwise want to exercise outdoors, another popular exercise alternative in these times is online workout classes. Whether using YouTube to watch a free video or downloading a subscription app with daily streaming, you can still feel connected to others and get expert coaching on your fitness journey. Even household chores or a private dance party to your favorite tunes can get your heart rate up and help you feel better.

Get a Mix of Physical Activity for Healthy Mind and Body

Sources like the Mayo Clinic, Harvard Health, and Popular Science all agree that 30 minutes of moderate activity or 15 minutes of vigorous activity are needed five days a week to achieve health results. That means 150 minutes on the moderate side, or 75 on the vigorous side. It’s also important to mix aerobics with strength training to improve muscle mass.

Of course, that is just the recommended minimum. As your attitude and mindset adjust with these new habits, you might want to go even further, and that’s great. Just make sure to align your diet and rest periods with your new workouts, and you will be doing the work to banish the blues every day.

Right now, there are nearly 22,000 online events being published daily, according to Eventbrite. Business and professional online events specifically have increased by over 1,100 percent. With so many options to connect, learn, and gather through our devices, it can be difficult to decide which are the most valuable. While every person’s schedule and interests are different, we collected a list of online events and conferences for late summer and fall 2020.

Online Conferences for Startups & Entrepreneurs 2020

Trying to start or sustain a business during the current pandemic is certainly a challenge. Luckily, the increase in online events means a significant increase in curated resources for entrepreneurs.

VentureSummit Virtual Connect (August 4-6): This event highlights different VCs and venture funds.

Disrupt 2020 (September 14-18): Five days of non-stop programming coupled with a focus on providing insights to entrepreneurs.

Founder Institute Online Webinars (ongoing): The Founder Institute is scheduling recurring programming for founders and business leaders.

StartupDevKit (ongoing): A 3-month online incubator and accelerator for startups at any stage.

Online Business Conferences 2020

Whether you’re looking to improve existing skills, learn new ones, or expand your network, online conferences and events can be just as useful as in-person ones. These offerings will grow your skills and help you meet new people, or promote your business:

Digital Marketing World Forum (September 16-17): Learn the latest ambitious trends and strategies in digital marketing.

Elevate Main Stage (September 21-24): Hear from experts at the intersections of technology, sustainability, and innovation about what’s next for many industries.

Online Personal Development Resources 2020

Plenty of online events are focused on business, but there are also conferences and webinars for personal development. Here are a few resources to help you choose an event that’s ideal for you:

Eventbrite lists events from all over the world, from art appreciation to live music to interpersonal skills training.

Coursera allows you to audit online courses from over 200 colleges and universities for free, or pay a subscription to work toward earning a certificate.

YouTube has a specific angle on the home fitness market, with many popular channels to help you start yoga, strength training, kickboxing, or more from your own home.  Plus, you can search for just about any other topic, too.

MasterClass lets you watch instruction on everything from skateboarding to cooking to leadership from some of the world’s best minds.

Attend Online Events to Maximize Opportunity

These are just some of the online events and conferences scheduled for summer and fall 2020. We encourage everyone to find something that appeals to them and keep engaging in lifelong learning, even when that can’t happen in person. Take advantage of this new normal to access online events that might otherwise require you to travel across the world. This could be the start of something great!

Taking time throughout the day or week for a few moments of levity, enjoyment, and positivity can be so helpful to one’s well-being. In fact, a study in Norway indicated those with a strong sense of humor and laughter outlive those without it.

Podcasts continue to be a source of inspiration, and their widespread availability means that they’re open for anyone with a device, a pair of headphones, and an hour or so of free time. With so many podcasts to choose from, we narrowed it down to five recommendations for podcasts that inspire positivity.

Invisibilia 

Even before podcasts were of note, NPR has been at the forefront of narrative broadcast storytelling. “Invisibilia” is a great continuation of the blend of storytelling, information, and heart that millions of listeners have already come to know and love. The podcast uses narrative and science to help explain the basics and not-so-basics that make up and inspire human behavior.

Two Dope Queens

Hosted by comedians Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams, this live-recorded podcast has quickly gained notoriety and a passionate following, primarily due to the duo’s hilarious, charming, and engaging conversations on a variety of topics.

How I Built This 

For many of us, we have a passion for business that some could find to be a bit dull or boring. But on this podcast, host Guy Raz provides great evidence for why the business world doesn’t have to be all projections and charts. Each episode, Raz dives deep into the story of a specific business or entrepreneur to find out exactly how their company came to be. Along the way, though, we get tons of insight and exciting stories that make the whole experience memorable.

Office Ladies

Is there any more comforting sound on television than the opening strains of The Office’s theme song? Now, your favorite sitcom about the antics of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania, gets a fresh do-over as stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey release podcast episodes paired with each episode of the show. The result is a sweet, relaxing, and often very funny look at what it took to make one of the most popular and revered shows in television.

How Did This Get Made?

Have you ever been watching a movie and found yourself wondering, “How did this even get made?” On this podcast, hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas take the films of lesser quality to task. Movies like “The Room,” “Burlesque,” “Showgirls,” “Junior,” and “Howard the Duck” all get their day in the sun, and listening as these three try to break down the most confounding and hilariously confusing elements of these movies is never a bad way to spend your time.

Podcasts are great to listen to while cleaning or driving, or to break up an afternoon.

If you haven’t already started listening to podcasts, you can use apps like Podcatcher that creates a stream of available episodes, or Spotify or iTunes. The hilarious podcasts on our list are a great place to start without taking it too seriously. And once you get started, don’t forget to search and subscribe to “Operations Avenue” and “Business Edge,” AKPsi’s podcasts dedicated to your chapter growth and professional development.

Once you’ve learned exciting new information at a conference or in a class, the next step might be to share with colleagues or members of your chapter. However, no one wants to be the person at the water cooler who won’t stop talking about their exciting experience; instead, you can arrange an opportunity to present this information to everyone at once through a special training or education session. But how can you be sure your excitement and the reasoning behind it are successfully conveyed? Here are some tips for giving an effective and memorable presentation.

Think Like an Entertainer

The first step to giving an effective presentation is deciding your overall point, or thesis. Maybe you want to share the information to solve a problem, or help others be more efficient, or because it’s highly relevant to the future of your industry. Whatever the reason you want to catch the attention of the crowd, try to think like an entertainer as you decide on the structure, order, and content of your presentation.

Lead with a Hook: The best presentations are stories that give us an “aha” moment, according to Forbes. If you frame the presentation as a mystery that you and the audience are on the journey to solve, they’ll be waiting for the answers to fall into place.

            Self-Edit the Narrative: It’s essential not to overwhelm your audience with information or try to summarize a huge lesson in one presentation. You might be able to share the content of one session at your conference, or one learning unit from your class, but hitting the audience with a full “brain dump” is likely to cause them to tune out. Research has shown that one week after a presentation, audiences only remember 10 percent of the information on average. Consider this as you decide what to include and emphasize.

Create Supportive Visuals

One study from the University of North Carolina found that presentations given in an audio-only format with no visuals might lead to higher recall in the audience. With that said, many presenters and audience members alike expect and rely on tools like PowerPoint and Prezi to keep the flow moving. If you plan to use visuals during your presentation, here are some more tips to consider.

Don’t Overuse Charts, Graphs, and Data: According to presentation guru Nancy Duarte, who has assisted executives in delivering amazing business presentations since 1988, it’s important to share just the right amount of data in a chart or graph. “You need to highlight the most important items to ensure that your audience can follow your train of thought and focus on the right elements,” she writes on the Duarte company blog. “Using a lot of crazy colors, extra labels, and fancy effects won’t captivate an audience. That kind of visual clutter dilutes the information and can even misrepresent it.” Instead, be sure the visuals enforce your key concepts, and then provide the finer details in a handout the audience can take away with them.

            Mix Up the Provided Templates: From the colors and layout of the slides to the content itself, it’s important to break the mold of a typical presentation if you want better-than-typical results in your audience. For instance, one study published in Technical Communication magazine demonstrated that using a full sentence as the slide headline versus just a few key words led to significantly higher audience recall. Refer back to our blog from last year about preparing for a presentation for more insights about presentation formats and styles, as well as some public speaking tips.

Reinforce Information Through Audience Interaction

Lastly, a great way to ensure your presentation is memorable is to involve the audience. On a basic level, this means you need to memorize the presentation as much as possible, according to Harvard Business Review, and maintain eye contact with the audience. If you aren’t engaged with and focused on the audience, they won’t have any reason to focus on you in return. Additionally, there are some insights to share about rethinking audience interaction that will take your presentation to the next level.

Go Beyond the Show of Hands: Asking people to raise their hands or shout out a yes-or-no answer is not full engagement, according to Forbes contributor Nick Morgan. “You need to make the audience do some of the work. That way, the audience will feel like it owns, at least in part, the result,” he advised in a blog for the publication. Some of the specific activities he mentions as alternatives are getting the audience to tell a story to their neighbor or asking them to handwrite or hand-draw something relevant to the core concept.

            Ask for Feedback After the Show: A final way to help the audience retain what they learned and help you at the same time is to ask for feedback. Whether they complete an online survey or answer a few questions on paper, even a few responses will give you enough insight to review and improve before the next presentation.

Sharing information with others in a way that helps them learn, retain, and apply the concepts isn’t an exact formula. Overall, your audience wants to hear from you about the solution or insights you are bringing to the table. Remember the classic quote from Maya Angelou: “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” If your audience feels better equipped to solve or cope with a problem after your presentation, they will remember.

The Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity would like to announce the election of Mike Dickerson and Miriam Tomaselli, and the re-election of Alexander Sultan to its Board of Directors.

Dickerson, Tomaselli, and Sultan will serve 3-year terms. Dickerson and Tomaselli will be eligible for election to a second term upon the completion of the first term, while Sultan will be serving his second, and final, term under the current bylaws. They will be installed as directors on August 8, 2020, at the next scheduled board meeting.

The Alpha Kappa Psi Board of Directors are elected by representatives of all currently recognized chapters in the fraternity. The responsibilities of the board include making all policy and strategy decision for the organization in between sessions of the chapter congress (every two years) and providing oversight to all organizational operations.

Dickerson and Tomaselli will be replacing Nancy Huebner Ghizzone and Richard Battle, who have both served two 3-year terms on the board.

Mike Dickerson-Virginia Tech ‘04
Mission Manager for Intelligence, Joint Chiefs of Staff
AKPsi Fraternity President, 2017-2019

Mike Dickerson is a highly experienced, passionate, and innovative volunteer leader, having established a reputation for advancing collaboration, executing paradigm-shifting programs, and developing countless alumni for leadership positions within AKPsi during nearly two decades as a volunteer leader at every level of the organization. He is a recognized expert in the history and execution of the The Ritual of Alpha Kappa Psi.

As the 41st Fraternity President, he was responsible for overseeing the activities of 600+ volunteers around the world, serving 250+ student and alumni chapters, including
representing all chapters and volunteers to the Fraternity Board of Directors, and establishing new initiatives like the Strategic Advisory Councils and Fraternity Managers. From 2015-2017 he was the Fraternity Executive Vice President, overseeing the Alumni Chapter Region, managing Management Team (MT) finances, and leading the Fraternity Ritual Team, which he founded in 2014. Prior to his term as EVP, he served as the first Vice President for Area III, overseeing 60 chapters in four regions. From 2009-2014 Mr. Dickerson was the Mideast Regional Director, expanding the largest region in the history of Alpha Kappa Psi by nearly 20% in chapters (both student and alumni) and 25% in membership. As a regional director, he became known for expertise in developing volunteers for higher positions in the organization, establishing efficient and effective management structures and processes, and mentoring countless student members in professional
development. Prior to being elected a regional director in 2009, I was a section director and served as the founding chapter advisor for three chapters.

Alexander Sultan-San Diego State ‘93
Senior Manager, Deloitte & Touch LLP
AKPsi Board of Directors – Secretary, 2017-present

Over 18 years of expertise in the areas of management consulting, information security and risk management, information technology (IT) strategy, cyber mergers and acquisitions (M&A), compliance, and management consulting for high-profile global clients in Public Sector, Telecommunications, Media Entertainment, Financial Services, and Technology. Earned an MBA from London Business School. Worked on international engagements in Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Belgium, China, and South Africa.

Miriam Tomaselli-Marist College ‘97
Vice President and Program Director, Klick Health
Commonwealth Leadership Alliance (AKPsi-affliated) –
Director, 2015-present

Skilled in building integrated project management departments, from the ground up, to manage projects from planning to completion. Adept in scaling agency operations (delivery management procedures) during rapid growth cycles, in handling operational challenges, and in developing organizational structure. Successful in grooming top notch talent to fulfill job roles, training first time managers, motivating teams for high performance, and development/governance of standard operating procedures.

Click here to see all three of their full resumes.