In this episode of the Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster, Kristi explores an anxiety-management technique that she's curious about, even if she is a bit skeptical: Worry Scheduling. Drawing from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the practice involves intentionally setting aside a short period each day to acknowledge and process anxious thoughts rather than allowing them to intrude throughout the day. Kristi shares her own experience with anxiety, particularly during a hormonally-driven season last year, and invites listeners to consider whether this structured approach could be helpful.

In the Communication Tip segment, Kristi returns to one of her core teaching pillars: breath. She explains why intentional breath training is essential for trial attorneys, not only to regulate their own nervous systems, but also to influence the emotional state of jurors. She highlights one particularly important application: maintaining regulated breathing during emotional witness testimony so attorneys can model calm leadership rather than unconsciously mirroring stress.

LISTEN HERE...

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

1. What "Worry Scheduling" is and how it's used in cognitive behavioral therapy

2. The importance of distinguishing between what you can and cannot control

3. Why breathing is a trainable skill rather than just an automatic bodily function

4. Three reasons every trial attorney should develop intentional breath control

5. Why attorneys should consciously regulate their breathing during difficult testimony

Key Takeaway:

Anxiety doesn't always require eliminating worry—it may simply require containing it. Whether through worry scheduling, grounding exercises, gratitude, or another evidence-based strategy, learning to intentionally regulate your thoughts helps you remain present instead of reactive.

The same principle applies in the courtroom. Your breath communicates leadership long before your words do. Especially during emotional testimony, regulated breathing allows you to remain grounded while subtly helping jurors stay emotionally balanced enough to continue learning and making thoughtful decisions.

Favorite Moment:

"You can't just be in 'hanging out with your client like a friend' mode. This is when you need to regulate your breathing and strategically breathe through the emotional testimony in order to help you stay present, and allow you to model calm containment to your jurors."

Links & Resources:

FYV #70 - Calm the Room: What Jurors Need From You First https://www.fostervoicestudio.com/blog/70

The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery https://a.co/d/04INUMFu

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If you're a trial attorney, remember that breath is one of the few communication tools you can consciously train until it becomes automatic. The work you do outside the courtroom—practicing diaphragmatic breathing, regulating your nervous system, and developing calm presence—becomes the foundation that supports your voice, your leadership, and your jurors when the emotional stakes are highest.

Until next time, keep fostering your voice.

TRANSCRIPT:

Helloooo!!! Hello Foster Fam! Welcome back to today's episode of the Foster Your Voice podcast. If you haven't already, please do leave a 5-star rating and a quick review and then share an episode with a colleague. Also, find me on LinkedIn so we can connect in our network. And, as always, let me know how I can support your trial prep or your courtroom communication strategy. Reach out anytime.

Today, I want to talk about something that...well...it might be a bunch of hooey! Honestly, I've not tried it and when I think about it I get a little side-eye, skeptical expression. So, I'm gonna tell you about it and then I wanna know if it's something YOU'VE ever done, and if you have, if it's a useful strategy for you.

Okay, so...when I think back on my life, I can definitely see how I've had low-level anxiety the whole time. Just a bit of an undercurrent that has shaped my life.

I don't know if you're familiar with the Enneagram framework, but I'm an Enneagram 6 with a 5 wing. So, what does that mean? Well...(and by the way...THIS isn't the hooey part) 6s are worst case scenario planners. We keep our eyes peeled for possible threats and then mentally rehearse how things could play out. In the Enneagram book, The Road Back to You, by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, it says "For Sixes, imagining and planning for potential catastrophes is a way of maintaining a sense of safety, control, and certainty in an unpredictable world."

Now, I share all this, just as a foundation so you'll know what I'm working with here. I have low-key anxiety, that for my whole life, I have managed well and it's not overtaken me. Until last year. I've mentioned this before on the podcast, that last year I experienced a brief window where my always-low-level anxiety rose to the surface and became difficult to manage. Fortunately, it really was brief. Just 2-3 weeks of feeling pretty unhinged.

I believe my episode was hormonally-based, since, you know...I'm walking down the pathway of life and I'm in these strange hormone-shifting years. Now, I've been able to get it back in alignment with natural methods, which I'm grateful for, but that episode alerted me to the presence of anxiety in new ways, and drew my attention to my need to manage it and monitor it for a time where medication might come into play. Maybe. Who knows. My point is that...i'm not REALLY aware of anxiety's presence.

Which led me to today's point of interest: Worry Scheduling. (THIS is the part I'm not convinced about)

So, what is "worry scheduling?" Based in cognitive behavioral therapy, it's essentially what it sounds like: Setting aside a small amount of time each day to focus on the things you’re stressed about.

It's not about completely pushing your anxious thoughts aside and pretending they don’t exist. Instead, you’re giving them an intentional space to exist in—without letting them dominate your life.

The idea is that by designating a time of day where you address those anxious thoughts, you begin to train your brain to not be so reactive, and the less urgent and all-consuming those anxious thoughts will feel.

The suggestion is that you structure your 10-30 minute worry session by writing down your anxious thoughts. Getting them on paper keeps them from being in an endless internal loop. Once you're written down a thought, ask yourself: Is this something I can control? If the answer is yes, come up with a small next step to address it. If the answer is no, practice sitting with the feeling without obsessing over a solution.

I think that this SOUNDS like a good idea. I just don't feel confident that this will work for me. I have found that grounding exercises (like I talked through in episode 70) and gratitude expressions are what help me in my anxious moments. Redirecting and de-escalating that energy inside.

What do you think? Are you skeptical like me? Or does this sound like a really do-able, and effective strategy that you're willing to try? And report back? I'd love to hear from you, about this, or other strategies that you use to regulate your anxiety levels. Send me an email at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn.

—BREAK—

Every few weeks, I do a communication tip related to breathing. Why? Because we're not good at it. I mean...you do it all day long, every day, but that's your body on auto-pilot. You're good at that kind of breathing.

But when we're talking about USING your breath to systematically and strategically assist your courtroom communication...? That's what always needs some practice.

I mean, that's the cool thing about breathing. It's part of the autonomic nervous system, so, mercifully, you don't have to carefully consider every breath that comes in and out. Your brain just directs the body on what to do without your mental leadership being asserted.

BUT, we can take breathing out of an autonomic function and TRAIN the breath to work differently, then put it back to run on auto again. Like me, ALL my breathing is pretty low. I do nearly 100% belly breathing, with the exception of when I'm aerobic, because of all my years of singing and teaching singing. I took it out of automatic-mode, trained it, and now those neural pathways are firmly in place so now THAT is my automatic mode, not high chest breathing.

Low, belly breathing is probably something you still need to work on. The body knows how to do it naturally. Babies breath low in the target zone, and you breath low in that target zone, masterfully might I add, when you lay down and when you sleep. So, your body holds the wisdom, but your brain has to catch up and really train the muscles to breath this way when you're upright.

And we've talked about WHY this is important. Can you list the reasons with me?

First, low breathing regulates YOUR nervous system.

Second, by you breathing low, it regulates your JURORS' nervous system

And Third, by activating those lower abdominal muscles while you breathe, you are more equipped to actually USE the breath for a stronger, more stable and solid tone.

When you can do this, you are at choice about how you want to be present in the courtroom, and you have real influence over jurors' experience there with you.

So, let's consider what happens to breath and breathing, naturally, when you are watching emotional testimony. This is a trial moment where you really need to bring some awareness and focus to your breath, because NATURALLY, it will become disregulated.

Naturally, because of YOUR mirror neurons, you'll hold tension in your chest, and you'll take short, shallow, syncopated, high breaths. Now, if this was just about you being present with a friend as they were sharing something emotionally heavy, traumatic, and difficult...fine. The way you breathe with them is fine because that's not a high stakes communication moment.

In trial though, you are in service to the jury and you are duty-bound to help them navigate their way through this experience so that they can make a thoughtful and just decision. So, you can't just be in "hanging out with your client like a friend" mode. This is when you need to regulate your breathing and strategically breathe through the emotional testimony in order to help you stay present, and allow you to model calm containment to your jurors.

That's how you serve the moment. Focus on your breathing. The witness will sense your presence in the moment, and your jurors will (subconsciously) get the breath management direction they need. Start practicing.

Until next time, keep fostering your voice.