Healthy rituals lead to positive outcomes - e.g. peace of mind.
Examples:
attendance at church usually involves some preliminary mental engagement and is rather ritualistic in terms of behaviors.
regular exercise or getting together with friends - can be a healthy ritual that produces good-feeling chemical responses in the brain. Attendance at a Twelve Step meeting seems to produce the same results. There is most often some prior thought involved. There are rituals in the meeting that govern the transactions. People's frame of mind seems to change in response to the experience, which is at least in part a reflection of neurochemical changes in their brains.
See also: outer circle.