This week, we're presenting an episode of The Happiness Lab. On the show, Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos shares surprising research and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.  In this episode, Laurie dives into why athletes, space crews and pop stars all indulge in strange rituals before moments of high stress. It's easy to mock these behaviors - even the people who practice them admit they're a bit weird - but they can act like performance enhancing drugs. Laurie says the research shows that creating a good luck ritual can make us perform better and feel calmer, happier and more confident when faced with life's big moments. You can listen to more episodes of The Happiness Lab at http://podcasts.pushkin.fm/atrhappinesslab Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com