One trick is to touch something large and metal to discharge any static electricity in your body. However, this is something you would only do if you didn't have an anti static wrist strap.
Just because you discharge any built up energy doesn't mean that you will not accumulate any more energy during your working. not to mention that no matter what it is that your touching, going from contact with one large mass to another changes the level of electricity in your body very quickly.
I've tinkered around with electronics here and there and I never zapped anything with ESD. But it's always better to be safe than sorry. A $5 wrist strap is better than a ruined $150 motherboard.
Of course you have to be careful with those things. If you wear one of those wrist straps on one hand and a digital watch on the other, and reach for your cell phone, you could explode... or so I heard.