Aquafil’s international suggestions for staying connected and inspired

What are you doing in these days? How are you regenerating energy, hope, happiness and strength? How do you get inspiration from the restricted space of social distancing? We checked with our team members across the world — from China, to Italy, to the USA — to put together a power-toolkit for regeneration in the time of COVID-19. We hope it helps you stay strong!

I guess the whole concept of what was important or even extremely important, or less has been reprioritized in these days. Do you have the same feeling? Things that were extremely important to do or the world would end, have no meaning now. Other things that we were practicing lightly/carelessly every day — like enjoying a cup of tea or coffee with friends — are impossible to do now. So, while our sense of ‘what is necessary and what is not’ has changed, there are things that haven’t changed, like our need to connect and talk, and our need to nurture and regenerate ourselves and our communities with beauty, hope and nature.

Those who follow us on social media or here might know that ECONYL® is a sustainable nylon yarn produced by a small multinational company, called Aquafil, headquartered in Italy. Because we have facilities all over the world and our team is spread from China to the US, we thought to check with some people of our team to collect suggestions from every side of the globe.

Together, we came up with a toolkit of various things that are entertaining us and our families and that we wanted to share.

Photo by Matteo Grando on Unsplash

Remain a community: Be like a forest

Sometimes it’s seeing a situation through the lenses of a metaphor helps to see things with fresh eyes and gives hope for the future. We fell in love with the metaphor of this article immediately. If we act like trees in a forest, we might build stronger communities for the future.

Humor from China

Through TikTok and Jesse Appell, an American comedian who studied Chinese comedy, China is showing us the power of comedy during the quarantine.

Start the day with poetry

What if every day we start with poetry, just like every meeting at the New York Times. It might give levity or a different sense to our day and guide us into another world, another language, other metaphors and emotions.

And also, from Alice, our social media manager — If you want to try to create your own poem but don’t feel yet comfortable with finding your own words, why not trying with hidden poetry or blackout poetry systems?

To listen to poetry, here is a great podcast to immerse yourself in a single poem each time.

Science and technology breakthroughs on COVID-19

Aquafil’s CEO and President, Giulio Bonazzi, added its own suggestion with a great newsletter you can subscribe to get every-week updates on the latest breakthroughs in detection, prevention & cure of the COVID-19 with exponential technologies like AI, Robotics, Drones, Cellular Medicine, CRISPR and Networks & Sensors. The newsletter is called “FutureLoop Pandemic Special Edition” and is curated by Peter Diamandis.

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Explore nature — livestream

When we cannot go into nature, technology can help in bringing nature into our home. Here is a selection by the Revelator for you to check out.

“With the coronavirus continuing to spread and self-isolation becoming the norm, it feels more important than ever to embrace the power and beauty of nature. Sure, we can’t travel as much these days, but the modern world can still bring the natural world to us”.

Exploring hope

We might be tempted to think that hope is a feeling we cannot afford right now and that we can have hope only if we avoid the hard news and forget about what is happening. We also might be tented to think that these events might bring out the worse in people. And sometimes these things happen but most of the time it’s the exact opposite. If you haven’t read them, these books by Rebecca Solnit, are worth some hours of your time.

Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit.

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, Rebecca Solnit.

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency”.

“Hope just means another world might be possible, not promise, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”

Declutter and reuse or swap

Alice, our social media manager is obsessed with decluttering, so she is taking this huge opportunity while we are home to clean up and declutter. This is also what Marie Kondo, the queen of decluttering, is recommending during the quarantine. We especially recommend having a look at your wardrobe and choose what you are not using and wearing anymore and prepare a nice box to swap or to donate as soon as the time will be good to go out. You can also do your decluttering while listening to Clare Press’ podcast: Wardrobe Crisis. This is exactly how her journey into sustainable fashion started some years ago, from her own wardrobe.

Explore happiness

Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos became famous two years ago because her class at Yale became the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history. She has studied the science of happiness and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make our lives better. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale, in this podcast, Laurie will take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.

Her latest episode is a bonus about Coronavirus and how to coach yourself through a crisis.

Follow a schedule

You might be tempted to stay up till late at night and sleep till later in the morning but it’s important to try to keep a schedule. Here are some examples from our Corporate Brand Manager, Maria Giovanna. The tips come from her osteopath who sends every morning some tips for the day to all his patience via WhatsApp.

  • Keep the same rhythm in the day. It helps with the circadian rhythm and metabolism.
  • Wake up by 7 am and exercise, possibly with empty stomach
  • Eat a lot for breakfast, less for lunch and much less for dinner.
  • Avoid the use of blue-light devices/lights after 6pm and if you need to, use a filter on the phone. You can have the phone activate the blue-light filter automatically at a certain time.
  • Go to bed by 10pm. Morning are for activation and night is for relaxation.

To exercise, herehere and here are some ideas from Simone, our art graphic, on how to use households objects to work out.

Also Nike announced that they will give consumers access to the premium features of the brand’s Nike Training Club (NTC) app. The subscription-based service includes studio-style workouts, training programs and tips from the athletic giant’s master trainers.

Keep sharing moments with your significant others

Always respecting social distancing there is still a way to be together and share emotions and moments. We have all seen the flash mobs coming from Italy and Spain and also a bingo tournament from the balconies in Spain. Everything is possible!

For a quieter option, to share a movie with someone distant and comment live check out this tool that can be installed on Chrome to organize Netflix parties.

Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

Silvia, also on our team and based in Italy suggests moving the Italian tradition of “aperitivo” to online platforms. Some have called it already “aperiskype” and with facetime you might be able to connect up to 32 people. Not bad?!

Show “your” virtual background on Zoom

As video platform Zoom explodes in popularity and users play with its “virtual background” option for green-screen-like video backdrops, brands are quickly jumping in to get ahead of the demand for suitable images. This is especially interesting for interior design brands. Have fun with your beautiful archive pictures and share them with user.

Here are some backgrounds from BEHR paint.

Photo by BEHR® Your Background, a library of styled homes that anybody can download for free and use in their next video call.

Travel around…sort of!

You can explore cities and cultures with these “walking around tours” of different places. You might even try them while exercising on your home bike to make the effect more real and exercise.

Also you can explore here the world’s largest gallery of #mumbaitaxi ceiling photos from India.

Learn to be a craftivist

Craftivism is a term that puts together crafts and activism. There are many people practicing it. One is Sarah Corbett, an award-winning campaigner with 30 years’ practical experience as an activist. She founded her Craftivist Collective, “a collective, an inclusive group of people committed to using thoughtful, beautiful crafted works to help themselves and encourage others be the positive change they wish to see in the world”. She also wrote a great book about craftivism and this might be a great time to try!

Picture by Craftivist Collective.

Take note, absorb, elaborate…and create!

Some reminded us that Shakespeare wrote his best works during a plague and sure there is a lot of material that is novel and worth reading among what is happening. So why don’t re-focus our attention from the social media fast stream to taking some time to register our thoughts and experiences and who knows if one day that material will become a short story or a poem or a novel.

If you want to be guided in a 30-day journaling journey here is the right place. Amber Rae will guide you through navigating your emotions and staying centered. Amber used to work in Silicon Valley before selling all her belongings and moving to New York, US. She has written a book and now also curate an inspiring Instagram account.

Explore art

Art can inspire, heal and entertain. If you feel you need to look at something outside from the social media stream or your window, here are some options from our social media manager, Alice, who is always exploring good stuff for us.

Photo by Daniel Tafjord on Unsplash

Make art using only left-over materials

Why not try to make your own piece of art? Gaelle, our designer at the carpet center is often busy with colors, materials and inspiring views. She is very committed to zero waste and in these days she doesn’t renounce to this commitment, not even during the strict quarantine in Italy. Here she shares her latest work of art made on scrap materials otherwise destined to trash and practicing what she sees from her window.

Another artist sharing a similar work online is Ruby Silvious. Have a look at what she can do with just a teabag!

In the same trend but more as a collaborative effort, Simone, our graphic art guy, suggested to be involved in social media groups that organize drawing and art challenges. The one we liked most is the Quarantine Art Club (#quaratineartclub) organized by Oregon illustrator Carson Ellis on Instagram.

Help indie businesses in your hood and donate to health organizations

There are not many link and suggestion that we can give here because the extent of what is possible to do depends a lot from what is possible in your area, but please keep an eye to what is happening and try to support healthcare teams and also independent business that are suffering in your area. If they are offering ways to keep the service alive support them with your shopping choices.

Things to do with the little ones

In this article there are many interesting things that can be done together with the little ones. We especially liked the ideas of dusting off all those family pictures from the closet and start sharing old family stories.

At stories.audible.com, you will find hundreds of our titles available completely free. The collection has been handpicked and is a mix of stories to entertain, engage, and inform young people, ages 0–18. There are selections in English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese and Italian. The experience is completely free — no log-ins, credit cards, or passwords required. Just click, stream and listen.

Learning new stuff in bites

“Explained” is a series of ‘bite-size’ episodes on Netflix that teach you something in about 20 minutes. Among the topics are mindfulness, monogamy, coding, gender pay gap. Each episode has a different guest narrator, such as Emma Stone or Hilary Swank.


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