What do you do to get around stress?

I create, typically ideas like a 15 minute city, an RPG character, short story, basically anything that has me think.

Throw things? Grind my teeth, mutter darkly to myself then hopefully retreat into a book, that's if nobody comes along and talks at me.

Video games are great for me, something immersive and "jobby" - I'm a fan of survival craft games, the sort you can spend hours chopping wood, or mining stone, so you can make a crafting bench, to make a house, to make a workshop, to make a better crafting bench, which makes a hovercraft, which lets you travel across the magical lake, which allows you to chop magical wood and mine magical stone... on and on and on

Reading helps also, but I've got to be really into it.  Rather like meditation, if you're already past that metaphorical point of no return, it's hard to keep my mind on reading or breathing required.  But if I'm that that sweet spot - again it provides a wonderful airlock from reality.

It's probably not healthy to say "booze" - I accept, if you're needing to do it every other night to relax, something bigger is probably needing to change.  But I don't see the harm in relaxing in front of a good film or box set with a few cans and snacks if the overall effect is to treat yourself and make yourself feel happy for a few hours before bed.

I make sure I do 15-20min stretches at least four times a week as well as 20-30min meditation at least four times a week. This I found for me does a great job of keeping my body relaxed and stops tension remaining and building.

I took a good hard look at my life and was strict about what I was doing that I did out of habit or for another's sake/obligation that was actually not giving me anything in return (but more on my plate) and wasnt really needing to be done.. and stopped it.

I also wrote a great deal. In my worse days it was nearly 5-6 hours a day, another form of meditation.

I use a mix of mindfulness and meditation to bring down the stress level.

The mindfulness helps put the issue I'm stressed over into perspective - steal its power to make me respond irrationally and lets me quickly plan a response to it.

Having that plan of attack to deal with the issue gives me a feeling of control again and this helps enormously.

For things that are outside my control (eg waiting for someone else to come to a decision) then meditation is the best form of approach for me - it helps me take the focus off things I cannot control and conciously brings my concentration back to things that can actually be useful to me.

With practice this can help calm the mind at the end of a difficult day to help with sleep, calm the red beast when I'm cut up by an idiot driver or when dealing with a difficult customer in my work - things where taking control quickly are a real advantage.

It isn't for everyone and requires some mental discipline.