I really struggle with my mental health, and some of that is the weight of being a parent......
That said, walking in from a long day of lugging boxes at work and seeing and hearing my young kids running to the door yelling 'Daddddyyyyy' is pretty great.
I like to go on a bike ride in summer or when it's warm. For about two weeks I cycled the 15kms to work with my road bike, and it was pretty refreshing getting out of the office and ride the half hour home.
Used to do that, until I started working from home. Half hour on a bike is perfect to get your head out of work. Often I still go for a ride after work (past my old job) even though I don't need to.
This is weird, but sharpening (kitchen knives). This also includes thinking and polishing the surfaces. I use Japanese water stones and Japanese kitchen knives. For beginners it may be stressful but after gaining lots of experience you develop a 6th sense and understand exactly what's happening at the edge. At this point you can focus on a keen, beautifully, polished edge. Additionally you can polish the faces with the stones and get a wonderful finish there. It's especially fulfilling for me because these were vintage, cheap and badly neglected. It's so satisfying to see them become so beautiful and be treated with the respect they deserve as tools individually hand forged, with pride, by master blacksmiths.
I'd share pictures but I think I gushed enough lol
I have a high-stress job but I will say I look forward to my daily routine of coming home, changing into shorts and a t-shirt, and taking a few puffs from a cannabis vape pen while I listen to an audiobook and playing a mindless mobile game for an hour. It gets my mind right and helps me transition to home life.
I usually feel very happy once I get up (not depressed or anxious) but the anxiety and stress of the day weigh me down to about the thickness of a postage stamp by the end of the day.
So for me, it's just the decompression time at the end of the day when i can sit back, watch stupid old-time horror or sci fiction movies, and eat a donut with some diet coke.
Thanks god for diet coke, video games, donuts, Forbidden Planet, youtube, and godzilla.