The sane old routine? Rituals probably help you cope

Before settling down to work each day, Michael Shermer has a cup of coffee with half-and-half — never a latte at this point in his morning — and reads the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal.

Then he sets off on his bicycle for a training ride with friends. Next, he drives his daughter to school and parks in a particular spot, the same one every day, gets his bike out again and pedals to Starbucks, the same location every day. There, he always drinks a venti latte while reading The New York Times. "It's pretty dang predictable," he says from his home in Pasadena, Calif.

Shermer is not a superstitious man. He writes a monthly column for Scientific American magazine, founded the Skeptics Society and wrote "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time" (Owl Books, $16).

Superstition vs. ritual

He doesn't believe that if his first cup of coffee is a latte he'll wreck his bike, or if he reads two newspapers instead of three he'll suffer irreversible writer's block. But he appreciates the power of rituals.

"I would make a distinction between rituals and superstitions, although they're not completely separate," he says. "Rituals are more just behavior patterns that make you feel less anxious, more comfortable. In a way, ritual attenuates the anxiety, and you don't need some of the goofier superstitions."

Call them what you will — rituals, routines or almost-superstitions — these patterns impart the sense that your day will go well, that there's a cause-and-effect relationship within your power to influence.

If not taken to extremes, they even can enhance your physical and mental health.

Connie McEnaney, of Phoenix, quit smoking Dec. 13, and she finds that her years-long habit of reading the prayer of the day in the newspaper every morning strengthens her resolve.

"It's uplifting," she says, "and some days the prayer hits just right."

Even during the three months that her husband, Dan, worked in Reno, Nev., their rituals continued. On those mornings, she read the prayer and his and her horoscopes to Dan over the phone instead of across the dining table.

Connie wakes up at 5 every morning without fail and, in this order, starts the coffee, brings in the newspaper and eats a nutty bar while unloading the dishwasher. After making her way through the newspaper, she gets on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

"We have to go through the whole ritual, or the day goes all wrong," she says.

Health benefits

Studies by psychologist Barbara Fiese of Syracuse University and other researchers have shown that the security of following such routines can reduce stress and promote overall well-being, perhaps boosting the immune system.

Kids expected to do chores, join family meals and go to bed at regular times, for example, experience fewer respiratory illnesses, Fiese found.

A morning routine makes you less likely to forget — or to choose to forgo — the multivitamin, your bran flakes, brushing and flossing, the walk with your dog, all of the things that make you healthy in body and spirit.

Shermer, a former professor of psychology and history of science, sees more benefit than harm in rituals unless they reach the level of obsessive-compulsive behavior, such as being unable to leave the house before repeatedly washing your hands or checking the locks.

Believing you must apply lipstick before leaving your bedroom, put your clothes on in a particular order or drink a latte, however, "is pretty normal," Shermer says.

"It's part of our evolved set of traits that helps us cope with an uncertain, chaotic world," he says.

"We know that novelty stimulates different brain centers and produces different neurochemicals, the substances that produce kind of a little rush. But we can't do that every day. We need basic routines just for stability so we can think about other, more important things."