Hey.

I was texting with a chaver about giving in to porn qua stress relief, and mentioned that while it doesn't solve any problems, it often numbs me for the time I'm engaging in acting out. His follow up question was what healthy mechanisms do I have to cope with stress. My best answer was drinking. . . 

This goes back to a question I've often struggled with - what's the healthy alternative? To put in the 3 circles lingo, what are good green circle activities. 

I personally am b"h pretty busy, and in between kids, davening, learning, and work don't see much time to fit in a structured activity. And yet somehow find plenty of time of lust, but that's perhaps a different discussion. But I suspect I'm just not thinking about it well enough.

So here's my question for the oilam: What's your green circle activity?

Curious to hear both productive activities you go to b'shas an urge that can keep you busy with healthy things and productive engaging things that keep you busy so the urges don't develop

I'll share mine (besides drinking).

I've been doing amud yomi recently and that's been fantastic at filling up time that would perhaps otherwise have led to sitting by the computer. It's not that the time was empty, but rather that the pace forces me to stay focused and use my time as I want to (without being overwhelming like daf yomi). 

Unfortunately, excess free time (what little of it there is) is often filled with news/blogs/online entertainment which is a very yellow-shading-to-orange type of activity. I do have productive things I can read offline, but often all I want to do is unwind with something unproductive. That's an general issue with de-stressing type of activities too. Yes, davening is an excellent way to unload stress. But davening properly when you feel down and disconnected is extremely difficult. . .

A primary issue for me is that empty/stressful times often come up at work when it's very difficult to get up and do anything productive beyond surfing on the computer.

Anyway. Looking forward to hearing what YOUR green circle is. 

For me, exercise, discussing my stress with someone and Urge Surfing worked for stress. I don't know whether you can do any of these while in the office.

1) Have a good book handy. Not on the computer but an actual physical copy.
2) Find a topic that you are interested in and a podcast that explores it.
Some examples: Machshavah [there are many diferent forms each of which will speak to diferent people, interesting halachic discussions, Nach, parshah, haskafah, Jewish history, science (biology [human, animal, plants, fish, cells, DNA, bacteria, parasites, viruses ect.], chemistry, earth science, astronomy, newtonian physics,relativity, nuclear physics, quantam physics, engineering, electricity ect), US/Global History, US presidents, gedolim stories, music, cooking, psychology, health, crime stories, sports, military hardware, UFO sightings, conspiracy theories ect. 

What you are looking for isn't green circle activities but rather if/then activities; if I am tempted then I will...