The two are interlocking, for me. Doing high-performance, virtue-based work (aka problem-solving, high-quality, etc) IS very calming and centering to me.
On good days, that means if I'm stressed, I can sit down, start working on something challenging and absorbing, hit flow state and lose hours lost in a project, and I'll make something cool, and feel a lot better afterward. The act of succeeding at doing something challenging and therefore demonstrating my competence at it is calming and stress-relieving. It's a self-reinforcing loop.
On a bad day, I'll either be too stressed to tackle something challenging, or my attempts to do the challenging thing won't turn out the way I want it to, and instead of being calming, trying to do art, any art, will be stress-inducing instead of stress-relieving, creating a vicious cycle that I cannot win. At this point, it's better for my mental health if I go read a book instead.
