12 Affirmations for When the Holidays Don’t Go As Planned

The big family potluck was scheduled for the weekend after Thanksgiving. I’d completed my casserole assignment, bathed the kids, bought the hostess gift. And then my relative—the woman who was about to host the long-anticipated gathering—fell down the stairs. Badly injured, she wound up hospitalized for a week with five staples in her head. My family regrouped, moved the event to another day, and sent her tons of videos from the party to make her feel included. But still, it was a good reminder that things don’t always go as we expect.

You see, real life doesn’t care if it’s the holiday season. People still get into fights with their mothers. Cars still crash. Boxes of gifts go missing, or the cat crashes down the whole tree, or the pie gets burned. We scramble for solutions. But because the holidays get so built up in our minds, we feel more deflated when these things happen and interfere with our picture-perfect ideals.

If the season is bringing challenges, here are a dozen affirmations for when the holidays don’t quite go as we’d envisioned them:

• No matter how plans change, I am adaptable.
• I don’t need a lot of material possessions to be happy.
• I am great at conversation and love talking with people.
• I am flexible when schedules move around.
• I’m a good listener, even if I don’t agree with someone.
• Our family can overcome this obstacle, just as we’ve done before.
• Solutions are presenting themselves all around me.
• I’m becoming a better cook and love nourishing my friends and family.
• I trust that things will work out.
• Circumstances around me change, but I choose inner happiness.
• In going with the flow, I am able to better connect with my blessings.
• I’m moving easily from setbacks into exciting new chapters.

Want more? Try my 12 Affirmations for Peace and Calm.