Creating massive fantasy worlds, taking the parts that I like the most for later, and then deleting them. Repeating this process until there's a world that keeps being recreated, as I slowly become obsessed with its every minor detail. Craft it, polish it, spend weeks caring for it, nurturing it, until I have a finished product. Examine it, polish it some more. Panic that it isn't good enough, walk away for a couple days into games/work, come back, polish it. Create hierarchies and numerical systems, personalities for character concepts... Polish it.
Continue until this several-week obsession is finished. Hold it gently with a smile.
Delete it.
Start over.
Attempt to recreate from my mind the world that felt so perfect, and stumble upon imperfections. Develop those imperfections into flaws. Watch some characters make a return trip, others get lost in the abyss of amnesia. Start talking about it constantly with other people. Probably irritate other people. Don't care: My purpose is the world, the world is my purpose, the flaws manifest fully and societies form from cultures and personalities who influence it. Flaws lead to easy conflicts: Resources? Ideology? Religion? Something abstract? Why not a mix of them.
Roma Victoria, Filthy Gaijin! A world is born. Make a role play out of it. Create a hook, use KISS (keep it simple, stupid) method. Gather role players under a banner, watch them make characters. Some succeed, some fail. Learn either way in how to make the system simpler. Look at flaws in the world that others point out.
Argh. Start fixing. Start the role play. Watch most people leave it. Watch them complain in other threads about how everyone else is to blame. Take to heart the most important lesson.
I can't control others. Only myself.
Work on myself. Work on the world. Tweak it with a happy hum where others might fall to despair. Take those who stuck with me to the end of the first attempt, get them involved in the process with suggestions. Recreate with a better system, clearer hook. New players mix with those who stayed. Happiness abounds: The world survives! What is now 2-3 months of work spawns a long lasting adventure filled with mishaps and love!
This is how I relax. This is why I'm on Iwaku. I relax through the ultimate challenge of any creator: Make perfection from imperfect tools, and learn so much along the way...