Transcript
Speaker: What is the most important thing when it comes to making pottery? The answer might surprise you. What is up, shape, mission? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode, I'm going to be explaining the most important thing that every potter needs in order to make, be able to make great work and stand out for the crowd and find your own unique voice. And that simple thing is your health. Your health is the most important thing. I will give you a little bit of story here real
Speaker: So when I was in high school, I played baseball. I loved playing baseball. And when I was a junior in high school, during my second last game that year, I injured my knee. I was playing third base, and the batter hit a foul ball, and I was running to go get the foul ball. But there was another player for the other team on third base as well. And as I was going to go try to go get the foul ball, I run into him.
Speaker: and I have to like scramble and I move them out of the way and then take like two more steps and I hyper -examine my knee and I fall to the ground and I remember the ball just landing right in front of my glove and I couldn't catch it because I fell and I injured my knee. But after I injured my knee,
Speaker: Something kind of switched to me because I couldn't do anything for almost like six months. I realized that I really had to take care of my health. I had to find a way to get moving. I had to find a way to exercise because if not, I was literally just gonna be stuck in bed. So I had to find a way to exercise, find a way to work myself out and just be healthy in general.
Speaker: So I started doing some yoga. I started trying to do some yoga with limited movements. I started doing some weightlifting. I tried everything I could find and I finally found something that I liked and that was simply practicing gymnastics strength training. That was after I graduated high school. But the reason why I'm telling you this story is because
Speaker: When I entered my knee, something flipped in me. That's when I realized I had to start figuring out a way to be healthy. I started reading more books about health and training your body. I started doing all these different things. And it's so important in pottery or in anything you are doing is to take care of your health. No matter what, the most important thing is to take care of your health. If you want to be able to do pottery for a long period of time, you have to take care of your health.
Speaker: If you want to be able to make pottery without having aches and pains in your wrists or in your body and your back, you have to take care of your health. Your health is the most important thing when it comes to making pottery. Not just your physical health, but also your mental health as well. You know, there might be some days when you're not feeling it, right? You are down in the dumps and you are just not feeling it and you may be feeling a little depressed.
Speaker: If you could figure out how to overcome that, then you're going to be able to start making more party that looks better. You're going to be more excited about it and everything is just going to be that much better simply by taking care of your health. That's why it's the most important thing. But what can you do to improve your health a little bit? Maybe you are somebody that maybe doesn't move that much or you go to work and then
Speaker: You want to come home and because you're tired, you just want to kind of sit and relax. That is totally fine. So these are just some things that I have learned and I have implemented myself. So the first thing that I recommend is it doesn't have to be a long workout. It doesn't have to be a long exercise.
Speaker: One minute, five minutes is really all it takes. Maybe just try to make it a goal. It's like every single day I'm gonna walk in place for one minute or I'm gonna walk down to my mailbox for just one minute and then go back up to my house.
Speaker: It's not about really building or doing the intense exercise every single day. It's about building those habits so that you can stick with them and eventually build up to those long exercises. So that is step number one is to make it as small as possible as you can. That is something that I have learned that when I was trying to build a good habit for waking up early and
Speaker: moving and doing my own health and exercising was I had to start really small. And once I started really small, I was able to start increasing it more and more and more and more.
Speaker: So that's the first thing that has worked for me. Second thing that can work for you is to maybe get a buddy, get a buddy to help you work out and like make pottery as well. You guys can work out, make pottery, do health stuff all at the same time and you are not only is your health gonna get better but your pottery gonna get better as well because you found that buddy to help you with this. And the third thing that you could do that I have done as well is simply
Speaker: just eating a little bit better, right? You don't have to eat like super clean all the time, because I know I don't, but just try, something I do is I try to eat a little bit cleaner. What I mean by cleaner is not by eating processed food.
Speaker: And the reason why I'm telling you all of these things is because I want you to have a long, healthy journey. I want you to have a journey of pottery. And I want you to be able to make pottery that you make without having those aches and pains. Because I know aches and pains happen a lot. Or the fourth step that I do a lot is I stretch and I maintain my joints. Granted, I'm also only 22 at the time. So for some people, it might be a little bit different. But find what works for you.
Speaker: This is what works for me, and I hope I was able to help you out a little bit. Remember, your health is the most important thing, whether it's your mental or your physical health, and go out there and work on it so you can continue making positive for as long as possible. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to start discovering your own unique voice, you must first start with the right questions. That's why I put together a free 15 question booklet for you to start discovering your own unique pottery voice. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery .com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.
