The Three M's: What My Patient Taught Me This Week (Positive mindset and healing)

There are weeks in clinic where something stops you in your tracks. Not a clinical finding, not a complex case. Just a conversation.

A patient came in recently, and before I could even ask how she'd been, she looked at me and said: "You performed a miracle last time." She was talking about how different she felt after her last adjustment, how something had shifted in a way she hadn't expected...

But then she kept talking, and what she said next was the part that stayed with me.

Every single day, she looks for three things. Something magical. Something marvellous. And a miracle.

She calls them her three M's. And she doesn't just look for them, she writes them down. Each day, whatever she finds, it goes on paper. Because she told me that when you write it down, it becomes real. It reinforces something in you. And the more you look for the good, the more it shows up.

I've been thinking about that ever since.

It reminded me of a chiropractor I came across years ago, Dr John Hinwood. Australian, wonderful human, and someone who built a whole philosophy around two words: expect a miracle. He wrote a book by that name, and for decades he carried cards printed with that phrase and handed them to people, strangers, patients, anyone who crossed his path on a given day. Mark Hansen, the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, even commented on the cover, which tells you something about the company John kept and the ground his ideas covered.

Because it wasn't really about chiropractic. It was about how you move through the world. About whether you're scanning for what's wrong or training yourself to notice what's right.

I've seen this play out in clinic more times than I can count. The patients who seem to recover well, who find their way through pain and setbacks and the slow frustrating process of healing, they're rarely the ones waiting for something to be perfect before they feel grateful. They're the ones who come in and tell me about something small that went well. Something they noticed. Something that made them smile on the drive over.

That's not a coincidence. Mindset and recovery are not separate conversations.

Positive mindset and healing

So I want to put this idea out there, not as a clinical prescription, just as an invitation. At the end of today, or tomorrow morning if tonight has already gotten away from you, try to find your three M's. One magical moment. One marvellous thing, however small. One miracle, and I promise you the definition of miracle can be as quiet as a good cup of coffee or a child laughing or a body that carried you through another day.

Write it down somewhere. A notes app, a scrap of paper, a proper journal if that's your style. It doesn't matter where. What matters is the act of looking, and then recording what you found.

Because here's what my patient figured out, and what I think Dr Hinwood was onto all those years ago: the miracles don't increase because you write them down. They were always there. You just start to see them.

What are your three M's today?