The All Blacks get ready for action. Prepare, Practice, Ritual: How to Manage Presentation Stress and Nervousness, Part III And now let's take a look at Ritual . As anyone who's had to perform knows, there's always nervous energy before the big show. It doesn't matter if it's an athlete, a rock star, an experienced actor, or a presenter. The human body is hard-wired to automatically go into fight or flight mode at the first sign of danger. Now, genrally speaking, performing isn't dangerous, but the feelings we get before we perform send the same signals to the brain. That means that no matter how prepared and practiced you are (and the more, the better), the brain will still swtich to fight or flight mode. The question is not do you have some nervous energy, the question is what do you do woth it? Do you let it rule you as fear or do you channel it into a productive way? A personal Ritual before you perform can help you to fo