One of our polls from last June asked about causes of workplace stress, and this week I want to talk about how we deal with it. Whether it is caused by reasonable or unreasonable demands, insecurity, social anxiety, or just working for the Empire, stress is something that we still have to cope with.
How do you deal with work stress?
- Avoidance
- Banging Head on Wall
- Board or Card Games
- Breathing / Counting Exercises
- Complaining / Ranting
- Cooking
- Eating / Drinking
- Exercise
- Extreme Honesty / Absolute Candor
- Gardening
- Jigsaw Puzzles
- Meditation / Prayer
- Music (Playing / Listening)
- Musical Instruments
- Paintball
- Painting
- Punching Bag
- Rage Room / Scream Therapy
- Reading
- Roleplaying (Tabletop or LARP)
- Spending Time Outdoors
- Spending Time with Family / Friends
- Spending Time with Pets
- Sports
- Stress Toys
- Target Shooting
- TV / Streaming Media
- Video Games (what kind?)
- Writing
- Other hobbies
- I don’t fight it… I just soak it up
- What? Stress? Never heard of it.
Good Posts/Resources:
27 Spice ups
I ride horses try to weekly, first they scared me but not sure a relaxing thing or just shift in awareness. When riding whatever else I was thinking about all goes away and just focused on riding and what the horse is doing or telling me.
Sometimes a drive on a nice day is cool, learning to play guitar now too.
Sometimes me and a friend do crazy geek stuff we have gone to power line projects and got ok to take old insulators, etc. they were just going to throw out. Sometimes we’ll take some junk piece of electronic and try and see what it takes to destroy it E.G plug a 120V vacuum into 240V or 480V. Sometimes it fails in seconds other times things run for minutes.
9 Spice ups
At first I thought the question contained a repeated word - “work stress”, but after Googling I discovered that for some people those two words are not synonyms…
My main strategy is to try to not to get caught up in situations that produce stress, so Avoidance. But as we all know, this is not feasible most of the time, so that is where eating and drinking (after hours!) comes in.
10 Spice ups
Not sure if it is a sport or a hobby but I throw axes in a league once a week. I also like to get out in nature without any technology. The hardest part for me which I am getting better at is leaving work at work once the day ends.
14 Spice ups
ode2joy
(Ode2joy)
5
Tent camping. The kind with no electricity or devices of any kind (other than my camera).
9 Spice ups
I wish I could honestly say it is working out, but mine usually starts with listening to music (usually my “headbanger’s ball” playlist) as that is easier to squeeze in than gaming time. But, if it is afterhours, it’s going on a walk and or playing video games.
When it comes to video games, I’m of two flavors. First, is getting into some PvP (Player vs. Player) and right now, I’ve been jumping back into League of Legends for that fix. The other flavor is just getting lost in something for a time, and right now that is Fallout 4 (with the Sim Settlements 2 mods).
I’m with @ithoneybadger in that, sometimes the hardest part is consistently leaving work once the work day ends. I’m much better at that lately, but there are still days when I get the, ahem, tap on the head to point out its already dinner time 
10 Spice ups
Two of the luckiest things I ran into with my current job that I realized after a year or so of working there. I have an 18 minute drive from my house to work and the sun is always at my back… I drive due west to work and due east home in the evening. After the first year I found the driving therapeutic as it was just enough time to de-stress at the end of the day and in the morning the perfect amount of time to gather focus and come in prepared for work, driving is kind of a therapy in this instance. I noticed the sun thing after taking one of my children to school one morning. It was a 10 minute drive with the sun in my eyes the whole way and I was angry as a beaver by the time I returned home… I think it is the little things that add up over time which build up the stress and nipping the small things in the bud before they become big things is the key to stress management. Be the change you wish to see… would be my advice.
8 Spice ups
Sit outside in the shade with a good bourbon and a great cigar.
11 Spice ups
amatney
(amatney)
9
Well for me, I don’t get to do it very often, or at least as much as I should, but going out to the range and putting some rounds into a target at a 1000m makes me happy.
10 Spice ups
Most of my stress is due to serious social anxiety and overstimulation. I combat this with a good amount of alone time coupled with computer games (mostly RPGs) or watching movies/TV shows (mostly SciFi and horror).
7 Spice ups
tc394
(TC394)
11
It’s pretty simple. Identify the things you have control over, and deal with them. Recognize the things you don’t have control over (including available resources, including time), and let them go. Communicate clearly so that people understand that you are not just blowing them off. Don’t get distracted by the problem/challenge making the most noise. It isn’t usually the one that is actually mission-critical. Oh, and don’t take your work home with you, unless you actually enjoy it. My time is my most valuable commodity. I’m very stingy with it.
10 Spice ups
Reaction or method of dealing with can depend on the source of stress. When it is a vendor, I am brutally frank about everything and I am sure my face is likely adorning a few dartboards at a certain vendor.
5 Spice ups
I like to relax and walk up to Starbucks and Journal and reflect.
4 Spice ups
Mostly getting out on the water and letting it soak it up for me.
14 Spice ups
I’m lucky enough to have a boss who understands stress and the effects it has. We take walks around the building or around the blocks when we want to (not at the same time, of course). I also try to go hiking on the weekends as often as possible just to get away from people and ‘stuff’. I also go to an indoor pistol range weekly to vent and meditate.
6 Spice ups
donges
(donges)
16
You did not have seppuku on your list.
10 Spice ups
Jrx1216
(Jrx1216)
17
I chose Music, Video Games, Spending time with pets, Other hobbies, and “I don’t fight it… I just soak it up” but I realized after voting that recently I’ve been painting as well… though not creatively painting, like literally painting the walls of my basement when I have a bad day. 
I would like to paint more creatively, but it’s not something I’m particularly good at, and it’s not something I’ve had the dedication to practice much yet.
Music is a great tool for invoking or soothing different emotions for me generally, though I’m not always great at knowing what I should be listening to to get the outcome I want 
As for video games, I tend to replay older titles that I know well as a sort-of anchor. I fall back into the Gen 1 and 2 pokemon titles quite a lot, which has been great, as I recently built a gameboy for myself, and just last week got the parts in and built my SO one as well, so we’ve been taking ~30 minutes a day to play together.
I’ve always got at least half a dozen different hobbies that I’m “into” at any given time. The ADHD is strong in hobbyland for me Realistically, I think it’s mostly just that I enjoy learning, and finding and starting new hobbies is a really good way to get a lot of learning dopamine at once!
None of those options work particularly well when I’m at the office, though, so more often than not, if I’m stressed at the office, I’m just soaking it in and quietly stewing in it. I’ve gotten much better at handling it over the past half-decade or so.
If I’m able to, I’ll spend time replying to posts over here on the community 
8 Spice ups
I used to have a super stressful job before I changed positions and entities within our University, so my stress levels are way done from what they used to be.
In any case, my first go to is music which is either some 90s grunge or nature songs. After that, it’s time for a survival game (usually Ark SE\SA or recently Icarus) where my skills are put to the test and adds a different layer of stress which helps to alleviate the other stress.
After that, it’s outdoors time either playing disc golf or fishing with my dog. I could sit at the shore line all day with a line in the water just waiting on a bite.
6 Spice ups
9gqpzd
(9GqPZD)
19
I have an unorthodox way of handling stress, I create more stress.
I find another activity/hobby and let it take over to the point that that stressor overwhelms the other then I can more easily focus on the initial stressor. I genuinely have no idea how it works but it does for now.
And when It causes me to burn out I take a break and reset.
5 Spice ups
Neally
(Neally)
20
What work stess? Hide the pain…
6 Spice ups
