Ritual

Humans engage in rituals for various reasons.  Often we use them as a means to see us through a situation where we feel out of control or to process grief when we are coping with the death of a spouse.  This behavior is hard wired into us because it is effective.  Studies show that rituals give us confidence and help us relax and that is why we are driven to perform them.

Rituals play a key role in sport and training.  You may not have reached the point where you rub a dead chicken on your barbell before you try for a PR in your dead lift but if you use chalk, utter a particular phrase or twist your feet into the platform a few times before you pull you are engaging in ritualistic behavior.  Professional athletes and baseball players in particular are notorious for their rituals (especially pitchers and batters).  As a major league pitcher if you are relaxed in your set-up with the bases loaded and a full count your therapist would consult the DSM-V before she would consider you to be relaxed.   Touching yourself and physically ridding yourself of negative juju by brushing away matter are time honored techniques for dissipating anxiety.

It is important to identify your rituals, assess their effectiveness, discard what doesn't work, try something new and don't be afraid of looking silly.  Perhaps, knock on wood,  you will learn a new way of dealing with an old fear.