I try not to feel stress. Maybe I'm naturally good at dealing with it, people seem to tell me I never seem stressed. But at the moment I'm dealing with severe financial problems, two elderly, sick dogs, and just about nothing else in life working out very well. I don't drink or do drugs and am agnostic so here's kind of how I cope:
1) Perspective. No matter how bad things get for you, there is a 99.99% chance you can find a story about someone who has it worse than you. For me those kinds of things help me put my brain in perspective and makes my own "stresses" seem small by comparison.
2) The dogs. Just hanging out with the dogs is a great stress reliever. They are old so really all they want to do at this point is short walks, hang out, and sleep. They don't know the meaning of the word.
3) Music. As I have gotten older I've really gotten into the "singer/songwriter" genre. Sometimes someone like Jackson Browne can put into words and music exactly what you're feeling at the time. When stressed I tend to stay away from the harder stuff and stick to acoustic music and classical stuff.
4) Exercise. My game of choice is ice hockey. I play in a mid to low level adult beer league but even at that it's a great workout, gets the blood flowing and works out the stress. I feel great, tired, and am sore the next morning but do feel much better.
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