Happy New Year, 2026!

There’s something about the stretch between Christmas and New Year that invites planning.

The Christmas tree comes down.

The house gets a bit of a tidy up.

And for many of us, the calendar is still mostly empty.

After the hum and buzz of the festive season, these few quieter days before the kids go back to school and work begins again seems to be a time to slow us down just enough to hear our own thoughts and it's often here that we start asking questions about what we want the coming year to hold.

For me, I’m feeling excited about the direction Rubric Wise may take this year.

New goals.

Fresh starts.

Lots of thoughts and plans.

What began as a simple way to explore repertory work and keep myself accountable quietly grew into something I genuinely looked forward to throughout 2025. So as we step into 2026, it felt fitting to explore that familiar New Year impulse through the repertory.

That led me to this simple rubric:

Mind, plans, making.

At first glance, making plans feels like a healthy look to the future. But as with so many mind rubrics, the real interest lies not in what is happening, but why.

Not all planning comes from the same inner place.

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Mind, Plans, Making: More Than Productivity

The repertory reminds us that planning can arise from very different internal states. Sometimes it reflects hope, creativity, or vision. Other times, it’s an attempt to manage anxiety, restlessness, depletion, or dissatisfaction.

Looking at the remedies represented here, it becomes clear that “making plans” can mean many different things.

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China officinalis

China makes plans from a place of mental activity paired with depletion.

The mind is full of ideas, possibilities, and imagination, often following loss, exhaustion, or overexertion and depletion. There can be ideas, but not always the vitality to sustain them. In China there can be a feeling of being tortured or persecuted by symptoms and plans can be a way of trying to escape. A person in this state is easily frustrated by not achieving his ambition, but lacking courage for change, he compensated by planning step by step but often doesn't put his plans into action because he feels obstructed.

Planning here is expansive yet sometimes disconnected from available energy.

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Chininum sulphuricum

Closely related to China, but with more nervous tension.

Plans arise from inner pressure and overstimulation. There’s a sense that something must be done, even if clarity is lacking. Mental activity feels driven rather than inspired.

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Coffea cruda

Coffea plans because the mind simply won’t slow down.

I shared the rubric 'ailments from joy' as part of my 'Rubric of the Week' series before the holidays, and that same quality shows up here. Ideas arrive rapidly. The imagination is bright, active, and excitable. Planning is fueled by anticipation and mental overactivity rather than structure.

Sleep may be disturbed because the mind continues planning long after the day ends and interestingly Coffea is in the same remedy family as China (Rubiaceae family) where we see these themes.

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Hamamelis virginica

This was an unexpected but fascinating remedy to see show up in this rubric.

I paused at this one, as I’ve mostly known Hamamelis for its venous support (and a small clinical pearl I once learned from Karen Allen: it’s a wonderful remedy for pizza burns on the roof of the mouth - Mouth, mucus membrane, scalded as if).

Here, Hamamelis reminds us that planning doesn’t always look busy or anxious. Hamamelis can be forgetful, with no desire to study or work. So the planning here can be quiet and compensatory — a subtle attempt to maintain order and continuity when vitality feels compromised.

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Kali sulphuricum

Kali sulph plans from dissatisfaction and movement.

There’s an urge toward change, transition, and improvement. Staying still feels uncomfortable. Kali sulph constantly makes effort to win respect. Planning becomes a way to imagine a different situation, environment, or rhythm of life.

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Sulphur

Sulphur plans in ideas rather than details.

Big visions. Big concepts. Philosophical futures.

In Sulphur there can be a feeling of poverty and plans can be made as an effort to overcome. Driven by ego and to avoid embarrassment.

Execution may lag behind inspiration, but the mind is alive with possibility and enthusiasm for what could be.

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As I reflect on this rubric from my own perspective, I always seem to have a lot of thoughts and ideas endlessly circulating in my mind and I often don’t accomplish most of them before a new thought takes over where the last left off, which is perhaps why this rubric fascinates me so much.

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All of these remedies “make plans,” yet the inner motivation is entirely different:

• recovery from depletion

• nervous overstimulation

• mental excitement

• quiet compensation

• dissatisfaction with the present

• visionary imagination

• lastly - some people make plans out of "revenge" but that's a topic and a different set of remedies for a different day

As we step into a new year, the repertory invites us to ask not just what plans are being made, but why.

Wishing you a Happy New Year from Rubric Wise and all the best for 2026.

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