I love diving, I think I've now spent over a month of my life of logged time underwater. Go for a hike, not sure what part of socal you're in. I also love listening to music, try to find a continuous mix thats an hour or two long; I'm a big fan of "trance around the world".

 

I like to shoot things.

I have a Stevens .22, a Remington .222, a Mossberg model 500 shotgun, and a Turkish Mouser from WWII.

 

i agree with jeff and achttung shooting is very relaxing nothing like f*cking some **** up

 

A little more expensive than shooting, but maybe less than diving. Set up a salt water tropical fish tank with coral in it. It takes learning some new things, money, and work to get it going, but it can be very rewarding....and relaxing to watch it.
I have a 46" HD LCD tv, but sometimes I'd just rather look to see what's going on in the 48" fish tank.

 

I find a season of The Simpsons that I haven't seen in a while and I watch it.

Also, if you have access to a pool, just floating around for a while helps me out sometimes.

 

12oz cans of an ice cold brew and a phatty on the back porch works for us here in Upstate NY. Come winter (9 months of the damn year) gotta wax the skis and hit the powder man

 

There's nothing quite like grabbing the old ipod, and just going for a run around my apartment complex. I just imagine one thing at a time that's stressing me out, and stomp it into the ground with each step. I like to think the sidewalks are shattering under my feet. Depending upon my level of stress usually dictates the length of my run.

The important thing to remember is everyone has their own way of dealing with stressors. What works for one person is not guaranteed to work for another. Try not to get flustered, and have fun exploring your interests!

 

I used to be an upstate guy. Drive the Ilion Gorge much? I was about 30 south/southwest of there. I've got a vid on youtube driving the gorge.

That would be my other thing to relax. Pick a direction, and drive. One particularly rough night, I put over 100 miles on the car, driving and thinking. Another time to de-stress, I drove from NY to see my friend in Denver for 2 days. Kinda like a mini vacation.

 

just riding a bike is surprisingly rewarding. moutain bike on the single track, road bike for an hour, or just taking cruiser around the neighborhood. good times like you're kid again, in a good way.

i can't recommend mario kart wii online for relaxation, it's great fun, but that nonsense raises my blood pressure.

 

Awe.... I was going to say this, kind of. We do aquascaping but with freshwater tanks, pressurized co2, all live plants, exotic shrimp, etc. Costs a lot less than saltwater but still involves learning new things, takes up time, and is very relaxing, etc. We also sit at night and just watch our tanks rather than tv at times.