How do you prepare for conflict on the astral plane?

Like, I get doing stretches and some pre sleep meditation. But I'm talking about the stuff after you start projecting. My instructor introduced me to a little known trick in which you surround your mat with personal objects that hold strong memories. On my second most recent mission I found that I was able to close more portals when my childhood Raggedy Ann had been placed at my feet. And what do you guys do about the faces in the slip gates that speak in latin? Does everyone else just ignore them?