Prayer, rest top stress relievers for Filipinos — SWS
Published Oct 24, 2025 08:40 am
Photo from Pixabay
For many Filipinos, coping with life’s daily pressures begins with a quiet prayer or a much-needed rest.
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Sept. 24 to 30 found that praying or engaging in spiritual activities is the most common way Filipinos deal with stress, cited by 16 percent of 1,500 adult respondents nationwide.
Resting or sleeping ranked second at 14 percent, followed by going out or taking leisure trips at 11 percent.
Other ways of coping included thinking positively (7 percent), focusing on work or school and ignoring problems (6 percent each), spending time with family and exercising or going for a walk (5 percent each), and engaging in leisure or social activities such as playing sports or online games, doing household chores, talking with friends or neighbors, watching television or movies, eating, and singing or listening to music (4 percent each).
A smaller share of respondents said they scroll on social media or drink alcohol (2 percent each), while very few mentioned gardening or farming and smoking cigarettes (1 percent each), crying (0.4 percent), or seeking medical help (0.2 percent).
SWS said women were found to rely on prayer more than men when managing stress.
Twenty percent of women said they turn to prayer or spiritual activities to cope, while men were more inclined to rest (14 percent).
Among female respondents, rest or sleep was the next most common stress reliever (14 percent), followed by thinking positively (7 percent).
Meanwhile, men were more likely to cope by getting rest or sleep (14 percent), followed by going out (13 percent) and praying (12 percent).
SWS also said that prayer was the dominant response in Balance Luzon (19 percent) and Metro Manila (16 percent), while rest and sleep were the top choices in Mindanao (19 percent) and the Visayas (15 percent).
The Third Quarter 2025 Social Weather Survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 300 in Metro Manila, 600 in Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), and 300 each in the Visayas and Mindanao.
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