Nick Torres argues that health is essential for a sustainable pottery practice. He shares how a knee injury pushed him to prioritize fitness, then offers concrete steps: move for 1 to 5 minutes daily, find a buddy to make with, eat less processed food, and stretch your joints.
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What is the most important thing when it comes to making pottery? The answer might surprise you. What is up Shape Nation? 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 from the crowd and find your own unique voice. And that simple thing is your health. Your health is the most important thing. I'm going give you a little bit of story here real quick. So when I was in high school, I played baseball. I love 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 I was some. 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 gonna go try to go get the foul ball, I run into him and I have to like scramble and I move him out the way and then take like two more steps and I hyper extend 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, something kind of switched in me because I couldn't do anything for almost like six, 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 going to be stuck, 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. So I started doing some yoga. I started trying to do some yoga with limited movements. I started doing some weight living. I tried everything I could find and I finally found something that I liked and that was simply practicing gymnastics, trips, training. That was after I graduated high school. But the reason why I'm telling you this story is because when I entered my knee, something flipped in me was when I that's when I realized that I had to start figuring out a way to be healthier. I started look, reading book more books about, you know, 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. 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, you. 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. If you could figure out how to overcome that, then you're going to be able to start making more poverty. 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 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. One minute, five minutes is really all it takes. Maybe just try to make it a goal. Like every single day, I'm going to walk in place for one minute, or I'm going to walk down to my. To my mailbox for just one minute and then go back up to my house. 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. 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, you know, waking up early and moving and building 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. So that's the first thing that has worked for me. Second thing that could 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 house stuff all at the same time. And you are. Not only is your health going to get better, but your pottery's going to 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 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 you try. Something I do is I try to eat a little bit cleaner. What do I. What I mean by cleaner is not by eating, you know, processed food. 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 potter that you make without having those aches and pains. Because I know aches and pains happen a lot. 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. 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 pottery for as long as you possible. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one. Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping youg 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 questions to get this free booklet.
