So if you’re dealing with anybody that if you’ve had a stroke or know somebody, a loved one or a friend that is dealing with surviving a stroke right now. This is a great episode to share with them. Or if you’d just like to hit the like or subscribe button, that really helps with my sponsors and affiliates.

So without further ado, here comes my really good friend, [00:01:00] Dr. Kenneth Monaghan let’s level up.

Time to shine today, Podcast Varsity Squad. This is Scott Ferguson, and I reached, graciously, reached all the way across the pond to Ireland to book my guy, Dr. Kenneth Monaghan. He’s a renowned expert in stroke rehabilitation, is revolutionizing at home recovery for stroke survivors. With over 32 years of experience, he leads cutting edge research, develops innovative solutions, and empowers patients to optimize their home environment for physical rehabilitation.

Kenneth’s groundbreaking work featured in media and recognized with patents reflects his mission to provide the best possible care and support for stroke survivors and caregivers. So when you’re done, or if you want to look in the show notes, don’t go there now, but you can go to www.

lightsmirrorsaction. com to learn a little bit. more, but if you don’t listen to the end, you’re going to miss out on a chance to get a free copy of his book. Light mirrors actions, a guide to transforming the lives of caregivers and stroke survivors. So [00:02:00] listen to the end and Dr. Ken, thank you so much for coming out.

Please introduce yourself to the time to shine today. Podcast varsity squad, but first. What’s your favorite color and why I

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: like

L. Scott Ferguson: green? I suppose

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: it’s it’s it’s kind of Irish really, isn’t it? But

L. Scott Ferguson: What after a stroke which you and I were talking off mic There’s kind of a rebirth after strokes I’m saying you have to learn a lot of stuff Mentality the mentality you have to the caregivers have to have the right mentality With you and it’s kind of green is like a rebirth right and spring comes Green, but you’re right.

I understand your Irish roots and would like the green as well, brother. But listen, man, 32 years is kind of baller, man. That, that is awesome. , you’re very well respected. A lot of people have said, you got to get this guy on. So tell me a little bit about the roots of things here, Dr. Ken.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, look at it.

I’ve kind of had two careers, Scott. I’ve, the first 16 years of my, , life as a physiotherapist or a physical therapist was very much into sports medicine. So musculoskeletal injuries, and I would have specialized in all of that area and worked with [00:03:00] sports teams, professional teams in Ireland.

And I was telling you earlier on, I actually worked in Florida for four years as a physical therapist. And that was, that was a really great experience. I got some great orthopaedic experience at that time. And about, about 16 years ago, so around the time that I met my wife and I moved back from Dublin, so I had, I had, I had started lecturing in University College Dublin and I thought I’d be there for the rest of my life.

And I met my wife at one of these there was a famous singer in Ireland, he’s called Joe Dolan, and at his, one of his party nights, I met my wife, changed the whole direction that I was going. So, I moved to Northwest Ireland and I had also become very interested in neurology at that time and I had been very interested in unusual therapies, so innovative therapies and one of those the title of my book comes from, which is mirror therapy and we might discuss it later.

And When I came down and I got myself a job in a local [00:04:00] university, I started to develop a research group there. And we call that the Neuroplasticity Research Group. So I, I had read a book by a man called Norman Doidge Scott. And any of your listeners that are interested in absolutely really, really interesting stories about different neurology problems and very innovative treatments.

They should find Norman’s two books. His first book is called, is called The Brain That Changes Itself and the second one is The Brain’s Way of Healing. And when I got that first book, I have to see, say it was like this epiphany, it was like this it really changed my life because a lot of the therapies that were in there that he, they were using, we subsequently then.

brought them into our research group. So I’ve, I’ve, I’ve raised about 2 million euro, million euros or dollars really for projects. And I have about 10 researchers that have gone through my books and all of the therapies that we, we worked on were therapies that could help neurology patients to kind of [00:05:00] rehabilitate a little bit better.

And, and a lot of the time remotely in their own homes type of thing. So so I became hugely interested in that area and I have to say it’s very rewarding.

L. Scott Ferguson: Neuroplasticity does that kind of. Kind of go in line with what, what you were, you had just said with kind of the rehabilitation.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Yeah. So neuroplasticity means that your brain has the ability to change its shape and its function at any moment in time.

So your brain is changing just by listening to me now. My brain is the same. It’s going to change. But of course what, what a lot of people, when I qualified as a physiotherapist 30 years ago, we were told at that time that, , if you got a stroke, that really within six months you were, you were going to get the best recovery at that stage.

And if you hadn’t got a recovery, then you were in trouble. Whereas we know now. that your brain changes all the time. So if you can, if you can keep doing repetitive exercises, motivate your brain, you can stimulate your brain in different ways, you give yourself the best [00:06:00] chance of a rebuild and recovery.

And, and that’s been proven because we have better scanners and things nowadays to show us and prove us that. So neuroplasticity was, , very much from Norman Doidge’s books. And, , we’ll talk about some of the stories that were in there, but there was some fantastic innovative things that they had found.

And we, we ended up. doing some research and kind of advancing those things a little bit as the time went on. So that, that, so now I suppose I’m fully embedded into, , being a thought leader in the world of stroke rehabilitation. And I suppose the book really came, idea came from the fact that all of the therapies we had developed in our research labs, I, I always felt that those things could be done very cost effectively and, , people wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money and do them in their own homes.

So the mirror therapy that I might discuss at some stage, , you can buy a 10 to 15 mirror and you can use that in your own home and people have had fantastic recoveries for their arms and legs with that. There’s a second thing, there’s a [00:07:00] second therapy that we We focus on a lot and actually it’s called cross education of strengthening, Scott.

And , very briefly, imagine I said to you, go to the gym for the next six weeks and just strengthen the right side of your body. Now, I mean, you’d never do that in reality, but imagine if you did, so the right side of your body would be hugely increased in strength, but amazingly, if you measured the left side of your body, 40 percent stronger, even though you haven’t done anything.

And it’s because of the electricity that. passes across when you, when you’re using one side of your body, there is actually neural activity, electricity that crosses to the other side. And of course, that would have huge benefits potentially for a stroke patient, because if they can’t move one side of the body, then they can use it.

L. Scott Ferguson: And to strengthen one side, sometimes while we’re kind of in that recovery period, the strength in the one side, the other side is going to benefit if the other side is the weaker side. that is affected by the stroke, it’s going to benefit by the work that the right side’s doing. Right?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: [00:08:00] It is, but people don’t realize it because it’s a neural, it’s an electricity kind of a benefit.

So it’s kind of given the person activation that’s there. And you see the mirror therapy, I don’t know, are you familiar with mirror therapy, Scott? Did you ever hear of

L. Scott Ferguson: that? After watching your videos on YouTube, I am, but which by the way, I’m I’m going to put a a link to the, I think it’s the evening routine that you have in there.

Brother, I think it’s like 12 minutes long or some jazz like that. And I’ve watched it twice. And I actually sent it to a couple of people to watch it. And I’m like, listen, what he says about the lighting and the mirror and stuff like that. It just made sense. But anyways, go ahead.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, it’s just that your listeners will be wondering what’s mirror therapy.

So very, very briefly If you, again, Scott, we’re going to use an example. Let’s say that you got a stroke and your left hand and your left fingers can’t work. So if we, if you put your hands up on your desk in front of you and we place a mirror, we put a mirror vertical, but sideways, so that the reflective side of the mirror is actually facing your good hand, which would be [00:09:00] your right hand.

And then the non reflective part of the mirror would be facing your hand that can’t move. Understood. And then if you turn your head and you look into the reflective part of the mirror, you’re going to now see what looks like your left hand.

L. Scott Ferguson: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome, dude. Yeah.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: And when you move that right hand, so you’re, you focus on the left hand after a few very, very quickly, your brain will think that that’s your left hand.

And of course, what’s happening is when you’re focusing on that left hand, the visual feedback that you’re getting, that’s actually. Desensitizing your brain is creating new pathways and it’s helping your neuroplasticity. Now, it, look at, these things don’t work perfectly for everybody, of course, but for most people, they, they work a certain amount.

And this is another key thing that your listeners need to realize is that If you have a stroke in the morning time, you’re going to be looking for this golden therapy that’s going to get you better. Isn’t that right? We’re all looking for that one therapy,

L. Scott Ferguson: right?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, unfortunately, I’m going to say to you now, there [00:10:00] is no such thing.

There is no such thing as a golden therapy, but there are about 30 different therapies, which include the things I’ve just talked about that are safe to use and have evidence that they work. And you see, this is what we need to encourage stroke patients and patients in general to do is to become much more active in the decision making of their recovery.

So this is, this is probably the way medicine is actually going to go over the next 20 years. Is that, yeah, you’re going, well, you’re going to see people being actively involved in deciding what works best for them. Active

L. Scott Ferguson: feedback,

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: not just bodily feedback.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, absolutely. So along with that, Doc, there’s got to be a belief system that has got to correlate.

between the stroke survivor, their caregiver, right? And during this healing process and rehabilitation process, open up, let’s open up that can, because you talk, you and I talked about it very, very briefly off mic, but what are the people that are involved?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, look at your, to me, this is [00:11:00] the, this is the key thing that really every stroke survivor and caregiver has to become aware of is that everybody, everybody focuses on the therapies that they need to do at home, whereas you’re right, you’re correct.

Actually, the starting point is you have to change things in your stroke survivor. The first thing is you have to change their their beliefs because most from what I’ve heard over the last 30 years, I don’t know if this is your experience, but when, when patients are getting ready to go home, so say they’re two weeks away from going home, unfortunately at a time where they should be looking forward to that.

It’s the exact opposite. It’s like there’s a black cloud over their heads because they’re thinking, number one, they’re thinking that they’re not going to recover any further when they’re at home after a certain amount of time. And this is, of course, is rubbish because, , we’ve proven now, we’ve spoken about this, neuroplasticity takes place at all times.

at any time and that can be utilized. Second thing that your stroke survivor is going to believe, and this is the false belief, is that their home is not a [00:12:00] good place for them to carry out rehabilitation. And of course, again, this is complete nonsense because your home, because of the sights, sounds, the smells, everything that’s contained in it and the familiarity with it.

There’s a researcher in Trinity College in Dublin. He’s called Ian Robertson. He’s a fantastic guy and he’s written a brilliant book that I think you’d love. It’s called The Winner Effect. And in that book, he tells us that when somebody’s in their home environment, Scott, they create extra testosterone in their bodies.

And that’s that rebuild hormone. So you don’t realize it. But when you’re at home, and this is just one of the benefits, you’re creating this extra testosterone that really gives you a better chance of creating neuroplasticity and a rebuild. So that’s just one of the things. So your home is a fantastic place.

And also your home allows you to have the flexibility and the, , you kind of have a better self efficacy, , that belief that you can do things when you’re in your own home. Right. And then, and then the third thing is, and then this is, this is the existing belief in a stroke patient normally, is that.

their, their wife, or their husband, or their [00:13:00] caregiver, or their family member, because they’re not a physiotherapist, or they’re not a occupational therapist, they’ll think they’re not a good person to be in charge, or to supervise, or to help them, and assist them. And again, this is, this is absolutely completely untrue, because you as a caregiver, so if your family member had a stroke in the morning time, because you are trustworthy, because you are actually able to explain things in a very easy to understand way, because you are able to have, , mentioned these self, , belief based statements, which is, which is something that has to.

Yes, this trust, and because you’re able to supervise and all of those things, you actually have natural talents that are very underestimated that people wouldn’t think of, ? So you, the starting point is if I’ve, if I have had a stroke in the morning time and I believe those things and, and I’d love to tell you a quick story just before I mentioned this next thing, if you don’t mind.

And it’s, it’s, it’s called the milkshake story. You ever hear this piece, Scott?

L. Scott Ferguson: No, [00:14:00]

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: let’s hear it. So there’s a brilliant psychologist, there’s a brilliant psychologist in Stanford University, Alia Crum, and she did this brilliant experiment with students and it was called the milkshake experiment. And what she did was, she gave a group of students a specially designed milkshake and she told them that it was so high in calories that they probably wouldn’t need another meal for the rest of the day.

And then A couple of days later, she took the same group of students. She gave them a specially made milkshake and she told them this time that it was a so low in calories, they probably need two or three meals for the rest of the day. And of course, as you can imagine, it was the same milkshake. What they were measuring in the students was, they were measuring this hunger hormone that’s called ghrelin and they were looking to see how much of it was produced for the rest of the day.

And of course, what they found is extraordinary. The students who believed or thought that they actually were having a high calorie milkshake, they only produced one third of the amount of hunger hormone as the students who thought that they were [00:15:00] having a low calorie one. And that’s extraordinary for this reason that the only real explanation of that is that Their brains created something physiologically in their bodies based on what they thought, isn’t that right?

100

L. Scott Ferguson: percent

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: So when that now, when that that’s true, then now you realize, now you realize how important it is for any person, not just a stroke person, to have a very positive mindset or a positive belief system before you set out on a journey. Isn’t that right? And the opposite is true.

So if you have a negative mindset, a negative belief system, your body, because your brain is like a pharmacy, it releases chemicals, growth factors, hormones to create a negative environment. And of course the opposite, the positive environment as well. And this is a very, very important understanding for any caregiver stroke survivor.

If they can, if they can kind of come to terms with, because if your beliefs, your beliefs, based on your beliefs, we create our thoughts. Isn’t that right? And if our thoughts are [00:16:00] negative, then we’re going to be in a kind of negative state and we’re going to make negative decisions. And of course, negative decisions means we’re not going to take the actions we need and probably won’t get the results we want.

So I think, I think that’s the cycle of things, you know? So I, I love talking to people like you, because Over the course of writing, , before I wrote this book, I probably had read about 130 of these popular psychology books. And somebody started me off one day with Malcolm Gladwell, first of all, Malcolm Gladwell’s books?

Yes. And, and Outliers was the one that I had started with. And of course, , this 10, 000 hour rule principle, , where if you want to be an expert in any area of life. Did you ever hear of that? 100%.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve actually met Malcolm a couple of times. So yeah. And I’d love to

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: meet him sometime because I’d love to thank him because he was like the start of me because I think that same principle and a lot of the stroke associations nowadays are recommending that people do [00:17:00] repetitive exercises.

So, , instead of 10, 000 hours, I often say to people, the mantra is 10, 000 repetitions. So if you can, if you can get people to do 10, 000 repetitions, you’re going to give themselves a very good chance. But of course, the secret is, how do you motivate people to do those things? Isn’t that right? And of course, one very good thing to motivate people is to be able to prove to them that they’re making progress.

Absolutely. So we discussed this in the book as well. And yourself, I was saying to you earlier that we have two, we have two children in our house, James and Ellen. And of course when they’re getting, , we don’t see them getting tall in front of us. Isn’t that right? Because it happens so slowly.

It’s only when we put them up against the wall. Right. I don’t know, in your house, do you have one of those little marks on the wall? I did.

L. Scott Ferguson: I did. , my girl’s 30 years old, so it’s like, it’s like yeah, I’ll have

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: it. Sure. Yeah, exactly. And of course, granny and granddad come in if I haven’t seen them for a few months, and they say, Oh my God, James and Ellen got so tall.

Yeah. And we’re saying, did they? And you see the same thing happens with stroke people. If, if you can only move your [00:18:00] arm a small little bit or your fingers a little bit, And you can remove it a small bit more the next day. It’s very hard sometimes to see that, but if you can prove it to them, and you can, and you can do this very simply with simple measurements, if you can prove it to them, that’s, there’s nothing nicer.

There’s nothing greater as far as motivation.

And then the second thing, which is awful key here, Scott, and it’s, I’m, I’m, I’m sorry about this, but I’m going to tell you one more small story. All right,

L. Scott Ferguson: sure.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: There’s a, there’s a, and actually here, do you see this in front of you? This is the key to the second story.

It’s like a set of Lego. Do you ever play with Lego, Scott? Yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: I

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: did when I was

L. Scott Ferguson: a kid. Absolutely.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: And anyway, there’s another brilliant research, the relative psychologist in Duke university, and he’s called Dan O’Reilly now, I don’t know. I bet you’re going to tell me you met him as well. No, no, no, no.

Anyway, Dan is this psychologist and he did this brilliant experiment with Lego and little Lego sets. And what he was trying to do with people Scott, was he was giving you, let’s say he gave you [00:19:00] this Lego set now. And he said to you, right, Scott, I’m going to, this might take you 10 or 15 minutes to make.

I’m going to pay you 10 to make that. Okay. And when you have it done. I’m going to give you another set and this time I’m going to pay you 9. 50. And when you’ve got one done, I’ll pay you the next one 9. 58 and everyone you do, you’re going to get paid less. And he wanted to see how long would people keep making those sets before they felt it wasn’t worth their while.

It’s a good question to ask. But like all these experiments, there was a great twist to it. So when you. brought your, , so you brought your Lego setup completed at the start just to Dan. He looked at it. He recorded that you had it done. He recognized it. Well done, Scott. This is fantastic. He praised you.

He encouraged you. He said, my God, Scott, you could do loads more of these and he acknowledged everything you’d done. And then more importantly, he took it and he put it on a shelf up behind him so that when you were doing your next one, you could see that one. And as you were doing the [00:20:00] third one, you could see the first two.

And then People in the other group, when they brought their Lego set up to him, he looked at it and then nothing, absolutely nothing. There was no recognition. There was no recording of it. There was no body language saying that it was good. There was no encouragement. There was no acknowledgement. In fact, this time what he did was he broke it up in front of you and he put it in the Lego bin under the table.

Now he gave you the set and he paged the same and as he did the other side. Sure. And so, of course, what can, what you can imagine what happened, the group that got the recognition, the praise, the encouragement, the acknowledgement, they went almost twice as long. And you see, that lesson holds true for every facet of life.

Yeah. Stroke rehabilitation is the same. So if you’re reminding somebody who’s a stroke and, , they’re doing stuff and you record it for them and you say, look, last week you did 10 exercises. This week you’re doing 15. So you’re [00:21:00] improving, right? When you’re doing it, , you’re encouraging them and you’re acknowledging.

You’re saying, look, I know this is really hard. I know this is tough, , and you’re kind of, , you’re praising them for the effort as opposed to not doing that, then people work harder and they kind of motivate themselves. And you see, Every business leader and every boss should, should listen to that experiment because we pat on the back.

Everybody for everybody is doesn’t do any harm. I think, ,

L. Scott Ferguson: I mean, I’m a huge believer in inch by inch. It’s a cinch by the art. It’s hard, right? If you make those little increment adjustments. that lead to progress and they can be shown by a caregiver in your case, or say someone in a batting cage with a professional athlete I work with or a golf swing, , but also they celebrate those wins or I call them stacking the dubs, stacking the W, stacking the W, stacking the W’s and it wins because I’m seeing a lot of like when I first work with clients.

, the first thing you have to do every day, Monday to Friday is give me five, , three things are grateful for, like, why do I have to do that? I’m a millionaire. I’m this, I’m that. Then [00:22:00] write that down. Okay. And then the next week I add on their intentions for the day. And then there’s an eight week progress that I add these things on.

There’s a reason for it. , people are like, listen. , it stimulates the reticular activating system. Okay. So if you said, Hey, Scott, I have a Tesla. And I say, well, what’s that Dr. Ken? And you say, well, come over. I go look at it. I’m like, Oh man, that’s a nice Tesla, dude. That’s cool. I see your emotion attached to it.

I see my emotion attached to it. By the time I drive home, how many Tesla’s you think I’m going to see? Probably 12, 15 Tesla, especially here in south Florida. So again, that again, it’s a reaffirmation every single day, Monday to Friday. And I treat it like a workout. We’re going to work out five days a week and you’re gonna take Saturday and Sunday off.

But we’re going to get back to it and get back to it. And it’s the consistency, but I also. Celebrate every one of their dubs with them and then they start seeing it They’ll get back on track and hit the ball straighter getting back my wrestlers i’ve taken the guy down their mindset is there and I can see how you’re implementing that into stroke, straight [00:23:00] Survivors, I don’t call them victims, but the stroke survivor and getting back So that’s just amazing that you’re adding the belief system in to the recovery as well.

That’s awesome

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: It’s it’s vital because you can do all the therapy in the world. You can, I can explain to you if you’ve had a stroke, I can say to you, look, this is an unbelievable therapy. That’s an unbelievable therapy and you know you can do it, but if you’re in, if inside, if you’re subconscious, and of course beliefs are, are subconscious.

Isn’t that right? They only really show themselves. Yeah. They only show themselves when you’re making your choices and your decisions. I, I’m always saying to people, it’s a bit like Titanic, the movie, , that captain and the ship, he only saw that small bit of ice above the surface. He didn’t realize that there was a big humdinger underneath .

And you see, and again, like what you said there with the Teslas, I mean, that’s a very good example. , when, when people buy a new car or they buy a second hand car, and of course they go out the garage and if it was a blue Toyota, for example, immediately their brain sees all the blue Toyotas that are coming towards them.

Isn’t that right? Because they’ve been, [00:24:00] they’ve been primed. Whereas all those blue Toyotas were there last week. Yes. And beliefs are exactly the They’re under the surface and we, we, but you see the problem, look at If the question is, how do you change people’s beliefs? And I mean, you probably have solutions for this, but in stroke world, I suppose what I’m thinking is we, we have to get our caregivers or our medical professions mentioning what’s called belief based statements.

I suppose these are kind of like generic kind of positive statements, not, not overwhelming people with, with too much detail and content, but all the time. Getting the message out to them saying look at I heard there yesterday that neuroplasticity goes on forever , and I’ve heard that your brain is capable of repairing itself anytime after a stroke I heard that my home is a brilliant place to do rehabilitation And this is kind of passively getting these messages in so it kind of dilutes the messages that are there already in somebody’s head And that’s probably the best thing you can do and you see as a [00:25:00] caregiver you’re well capable of saying these things You can affirmations

L. Scott Ferguson: getting them there and I’m not a Huge believer.

I’m a huge believer in affirmations, but I flip the script with my clients as well, meaning our brains, which you would forgot more about this than I’ll ever know, but they are programmed to problem solve. Yeah. That’s how we are. Right? So I have ’em flip their affirmation into a powerful question. Say, , as a, how is it that I’m healing so fast?

How is it that I get to do these exercises every day to improve my wellbeing? , how is it that I don’t live with shame, guilt, or conflict? , I have different people that will have different affirmations that they put out, but I flip it on them. So we’re going to ask you as a question, we’re going to ask you with conviction.

So that subconscious mind that you just mentioned starts going to work on it.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: And another very simple way for you to explain to people as well is that, and I say this at talks, I say, I say, look at the person beside you, right? And I want you to imagine that when you [00:26:00] leave this room, and if there was an interviewer, a radio host outside and they interviewed both of you, do you think both of you would tell him him?

the same story that you’d heard from me. And of course, the answer is no, because because of your beliefs, your brain actually deletes information that doesn’t fit with your beliefs. Isn’t that correct? And in psychology, they call this confirmation bias. We, we, we like to find people who have the same beliefs as ourselves, and we seek them out.

And we only listen to the stuff that agrees with what. Isn’t that right? And of course, everybody just needs to be aware that this happens. You see, and the other, the other issue that we have in, in stroke world, which is a bit of a dangerous thing, and, and I don’t know if you see this in the world of professional sports as well, is that when we go on the internet, we see these.

These survivors who have made a miraculous recovery because they’re the people that are highlighted on the screens and usually they’re selling, , usually they’re [00:27:00] promoting some therapy that they feel made this miraculous recovery. Right. And of course, this is what they call survivorship bias in, in psychology as well.

Yep. And what. People have to realize is behind that one person who’s made this miraculous recovery in a very short space of time, there’s another thousand stroke patients who actually have made a very slow, small recovery over a long period of time. And that’s actually the norm. But if you’re looking at this on the internet and your recovery is slow and it’s taking a long time and you compare yourself, you can actually depress yourself because you’d be saying, Oh, my recovery is very poor.

And. And you have to realize not to do that. It’s, it’s a bit like Facebook, isn’t that right as well? So when I see some of my friends on Facebook because nobody really puts up on Facebook that your kids are trash in the house and nobody puts up on Facebook that my kids haven’t spoken to me for three years.

, we put up when we’re on holidays and there’s the sunshine and there’s the, , the tequilas and there’s everything. And of [00:28:00] course, if you’re sitting. Looking at Facebook and you’re looking at my window here and it’s raining. Or I can’t even see out the window cause my neighbor hasn’t cut the hedge for about 10 years.

And I’m comparing to this. I’m thinking, I think my life isn’t so good, ,

L. Scott Ferguson: comparisons of thief and joy. Bottom line, there’s enough. So doc, let’s, I gotta ask you something. So have you seen the movie back to the future? Yes. Let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. I can’t believe next year it’s gonna be 40 years old, right?

But let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the double deuce. The 22 year old, okay? What kind of knowledge nuggets? That’s what we call them here at Time to Shine today. What kind of knowledge nuggets might you drop on the younger, right? Not to change anything, because your journey’s been pretty awesome, okay?

But to maybe help them shorten the learning curve or blast through, maybe just a little bit quicker.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, let me look at if I want to be very honest with you and stay away from the doctor’s stuff. I wanted to hear about. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. When, when I was, when I [00:29:00] was younger I probably drank too much and I, I kind of something I realized as I, I got older that drink doesn’t suit me.

I, I act stupid when I drink. I start, I, I, , any of the decisions, the poor decisions I’ve made in my life, , where I embarrass myself and things like that. That all happened around those years when I was in college and when I was drinking. And I don’t drink now. And I, I actually, if I went back to that age, I probably wish I had had the confidence in those days to actually not do that.

Because I suppose everybody at that age has, there’s a social pressure on them to try and follow everybody, all your friends and things like that. And I suppose, , over the last 20 years, since I really stopped drinking, , and I, I probably have been the most productive, , in terms of, I get up early in the morning and, , I get work done.

I don’t end up with hangovers and I don’t, , I don’t waste a lot of my life on those things. And I have to say, so that’s, that’s. Yeah, that’s probably the, I wish I had had the confidence back then to know what I know now. I [00:30:00] appreciate that

L. Scott Ferguson: transparency, man. How about, how do you want your dash remembered?

That little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date and death, that they, every tombstone has that dash. How does, how does Dr. Ken want that dash remembered?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, look at I, I, I want, my wife has a great expression here. She’s saying, look, people won’t remember you for what you’re worth or they won’t remember you for what you’ve done, but they’ll, they’ll remember you for how you made them feel.

And I, I, I love that expression. And I, I, I would hope that people will remember me for being a very genuine, trustworthy, kind of honest guy. That’s absolutely, somebody that. , I, I, I, I like helping people and I think that’s probably where it’s been very exciting over the last year since, , since the book came out and because, because of Amazon and because everybody worldwide can get their hands on this, the amount of people that have been coming back to me and saying that they’ve, , they’ve really, really benefited from this.

That, that’s, that’s a tremendous feeling, , when you can help people like that. But look, I’m, I, I try and balance life. , we’ve, we’ve nearly 18 year [00:31:00] old son and a 15 year old daughter and they’re, they’re at a stage in their life when, when, , you, you like to spend time with them and be around.

And I, , it’s, it’s very hard. I mean, to get to where you are, Scott, where you have, , all the things going on, you probably work an awful lot of hours and you’re probably away from home a lot. So, , people have to make sacrifices and I suppose I’m trying to just balance those things to try and, , be around as much as possible or be present but still, , trying, try and get this message out there to as many stroke survivors and people as possible.

I think that’s probably what. what I want to do. But I enjoy, I’m a very, I suppose the big word in life is contentment, isn’t it? I wouldn’t even say happiness. I say, if you can try and be content in your life it’s that overall feeling. And, and I’m at that stage where we are at the moment. I’m very lucky with everybody around me.

I’m very lucky with the colleagues I work with and, , I, I’m, I’m very content. So I think that’s, that’s kind of a stage where you can actually enjoy things, , and it’s nice.

L. Scott Ferguson: Nice. I love that.

Time to shine today [00:32:00] podcast versus squat. We are back and Dr. Ken, I’m going to make it a point that we meet up in the flesh one day, at least one time here. Okay. And we’ll talk about some of these questions for probably half hour, hour at a time, because I could probably pick your brain vice versa on a lot of things here, but today you have five seconds with no explanations and I promise they can all be answered that way.

You’re ready to level up.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Let’s go.

L. Scott Ferguson: All right, doc. What’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received. , to realize when you’re, that when drink doesn’t suit you, love it. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Getting up early in

L. Scott Ferguson: the morning, early riser. Love it. So you see me walking down the street or at an event or somewhere, and I look like I’m in my doldrums a little bit outside of your book.

What book might you hand hand me to help me level up my mindset?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, I mean, look it, I love Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers or any of Malcolm’s books, outliers.

L. Scott Ferguson: Beautiful. Your most commonly used emoji, if any, when you text Oh, a smiley one of some sort. Nicknames [00:33:00] growing up. Monty, Monty, Monty Monahan. Love it.

Have any hidden talent and or superpowers that you have that nobody knows about until now?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: I play the guitar. I play with a folk group in my local church, kids, kids, folk group. Awesome. Chess

L. Scott Ferguson: checkers, a monopoly. Chess, I think. Love it. Headline for your life.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Contentment, honesty. I love it, dude.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s awesome. Go to ice cream flavor. Oh cookies and cream, I think. Awesome. There’s a sandwich called the Irish Monte. Build that sandwich for me.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: What’s

L. Scott Ferguson: on it?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Oh, it’s like whatever you’d have a Christmas time. There’s ham and there’s kind of Turkey and there’s cranberry and there’s stuffing and there’s lettuce and all that, whatever, kind of a Christmas, Christmas theme to it, I think.

L. Scott Ferguson: All right. So what song was playing? By Joe Dolan, when you met your wife, they really stand. [00:34:00] Was it at you, it’s you, it’s you, or I’ll give you all my love to you. What, what song is it?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Oh my God. He played it the whole night. He had about 10, whatever songs which

L. Scott Ferguson: one comes out of him that. Really reminds me of the first time, reminds you of the first time you met your wife.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Oh God. Now that is difficult because I can’t even remember the songs. Okay, no problem. I just wanted to hiccup

L. Scott Ferguson: in there. Any favorite charity and or organization you’d like to give your time and or money to?

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, I mean, look at, I’m, I’m, I’m part of the neurology support center, which is a charity in Northwest Ireland.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. I love it. And last question, you can elaborate on this one a little bit, but what’s the best decade of music? 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s? Oh, I love the eighties, I have to say. And I mean, look, can I, I ask your age. Are you in your forties or fifties? I’m 54. So 54. Okay. I’m 52. Yeah. So we’re in the same Yeah.

Generation X genre and the eighties were awesome. ,

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: actually, I, well, I look, do you ever look back on the old videos of live aid and I do. Yeah. Do you [00:35:00] remember when, queen, remember when Freddie Mercury did that fantastic performance? Oh my God. At live it. Oh, yeah, isn’t that good? Yeah, that’s for me.

L. Scott Ferguson: The 80s was it because , there was an invasion into the united states.

There’s an invasion from everywhere ut and you two invaded us with their music, duran duran came at us all the she had the kind of the rap Kind of starting with beastie boys or on dmc and then you had the big hair don’t care It just had all of it in the 80s dude in that way.

This is amazing

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: We started only about two months ago, we started playing that. We are the world, , the, the USA for Africa. We, we sing that now in with our kids and the folk group. And we, we actually love it. And of course the video, you go watching it, all the, all the Lionel Richie.

L. Scott Ferguson: There’s actually a Netflix.

It was the greatest night music. I think it’s the name of it. It’s a documentary about that song. Oh, very good. How would you go watch it? Because you’re going to see like people, because it was all held super top secret at a place after the Grammys because they wanted to do it that [00:36:00] night because everyone was going to be at the Grammys and dude, guys were hammered, like Kenny Rogers hammered, said, dude, it’s awesome.

Like watch the doc. It’s awesome. But doc, tell me about the light mirrors action book, like, cause I really, I can’t wait to dig into it. I’m going to buy it on Kindle today. I want to sign copy from you sent my way at some point in our relationship, whether you’re bringing it next time to the States, but I am going to do a two book giveaway here at the end, but tell us a little bit about the book, please.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Well, I would say, I would say that probably two thirds of it is very much what we discussed earlier on, , the, the kind of theory, the kind of psychology behind what’s, what’s making a person kind of have the confidence to kind of realize that, , you can, you can run a fantastic program in your own home.

You can recover anytime after a stroke. Yeah. And then it also kind of gives you a little bit of guidance in terms of a starting off program that you could choose to do. One of the things that I try to do as well, which I probably [00:37:00] people aren’t aware of at the end of every chapter, just a very simple thing.

There’s a bar, , there’s a, there’s a, there’s a little scanner code I dunno if you can see it there. Yeah. The QR code that’s in there? Can you see that? Anyway, it’s like brand. Anyway. What I’ve done is I’ve kind of, I have summarized all of the main concepts of every chapter through videos and things, and they’re linked on those QR codes.

So if a patient can’t read, well, they can listen to the videos and it actually works very well. And you see, if you use the dynamic QR codes, then you can change the content a little bit. You’re not, you’re not kept, which is very helpful. But look at, as I said to you, the. I had heard for probably about 30 years, , the last 20 years, I talked to stroke survivors and people and they had said to me, look it, when they, when they go home, they don’t have the guidance.

They don’t know what to do. They want to do everything for the person there. They don’t want to have this regret that they didn’t do everything for them, but they don’t know what to do and they’re afraid they’ll do harm. [00:38:00] And so when I heard that. I, that was the knob of, , that there’s a need, there’s a need for a text like this.

And when I was writing, when I was writing it, Scott, I was actually working with three families, three stroke survivors and their families. And I used to give them the draft of each chapter. And I, I talked to them afterwards and got great feedback. Actually, one thing that really, I mean, it was almost emotional even though, so the book is called lights, mirrors action.

It’s a little bit of a play on lights, cameras, action, but I, but I do you

L. Scott Ferguson: talked about earlier. Yeah,

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: but I do mention about 11 or 12 different movies in there and quotes because there’s concepts from movies that so I was you’re familiar with the wizard of Oz and there’s a great, there’s a great quote from the good witch Glenda, something to do with, , you’ve always had the power.

The power has always been inside you, but you just didn’t have the confidence to believe it. Right. And. I remember this chapter, I gave it to the stroke people and when I went to one young girl who had had a stroke, she was only in her late thirties. When I went up to her house and I, [00:39:00] in her room, she had bought the stencil of the, of the quote and it was up on her wall because she had She had felt it was like such a powerful thing.

And, and that was the moment when you kind of realized that you can really influence people. And, and you’re, you’re sitting here at this desk, same desk, you can write stuff that can make a difference to people’s lives. And, , and that, that’s a fantastic feeling. And you should write your book as well.

I think you should, you should you should get. the main messages out there because it is actually a very enjoyable process. It’s like everything. It takes a while but you actually learn an awful lot and and that’s what’s happening now even from talking to you as well, Scott. The things that you pick out of the book, I might never have thought that that would be significant.

Right. I do love

L. Scott Ferguson: that you wrote caregivers. I know it’s just a play on words. It’s not even a play on words. It’s just where you you stroked it was carever, caregivers and stroke survivors. So like, right there, it wasn’t stroke survivors and their caregivers. It was like, you nailed it with that. Because it’s [00:40:00] like, in my brain, I’m going, Okay, dude a loved one had a stroke.

You know what I’m saying? It’s like, this book is written for me. What I’m saying? It’s like, it’s almost like a doctor, a legit doctor wrote a book for me. You know what I’m saying? And I, I think that, I know it’s still a play on words or whatever you want to call it, but I think you nailed it with that, , and

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: purposely and people should never fear this it’s, it’s written in a very, very easy to understand way because , I was, I was wanting, I was expecting it.

It wasn’t, it was going to be read. by mostly non medical people. But, but there’s 140 footnotes of science there behind it, if you want to investigate it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: But even, even my wife would say to you that, , and I was a wee bit afraid, , in one way to give it to her and show it to her. And I’d say she probably was thinking she wouldn’t barely understand it.

But actually, just towards the end when we were running out of time and I really need to get somebody to proofread it a little bit. She said, look, I’ll, I’ll read it tonight when you’re at work. And she went through 14 chapters in, in the night. And, , honestly, she actually got a surprise. It was, it was easy to understand.

It’s, [00:41:00] it’s in there. very simple to understand terms with lots of those stories that we talked about earlier. And yeah, look at the feedback so far has been fantastic. And you’re fantastic for, for, for, for bringing me on and giving me a chance to talk about it. Cause it’s, it’s fairly enjoyable, yourself.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. And as we wrap this up and it’s my pleasure, a hundred percent doc, but as we wrap this up quickly, please leave us with one last knowledge nugget that we can take with us internalize. and take action on.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: So, well, what we’re going to do is if a doctor gives you a medicine or I give you a new therapy, I’m going to also make you look at a video that explains to you why it’s going to work.

And so that you understand how it’s going to work before you actually do it. I’m going to make you do that so that you’re going to get 10 times the benefit from it. And that’s going to become wholesale in medicine over the next 20 years. We’ll have to have a bet.

L. Scott Ferguson: I

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: love

L. Scott Ferguson: that. It’s what I’m going to do a.

Actually, we do a three book giveaway on this [00:42:00] for the purse. First three people that puts whether it’s in Pinterest, whether it’s in LinkedIn, wherever you put this, you can text it to 3, 3, 8, 3, 0. But the we’re going to, whoever puts in the Irish Monty, the Irish Monty into anything social, I’m going to get a book mailed out to you on time to shine today’s dime.

And I, and I just have to tell you a squad, , as I kind of. Summarize this. I had, I’ve learned so much about strokes that I had never learned before, about neuroplasticity. I mean, this guy had, , kind of two careers, worked in the sports, and then he, he kind of parlayed that knowledge into really leveling up into the people’s brain.

His mirror therapy that he talks about with creating new pathways is just off the charts. , he wants to remember that home is a fantastic place to carry out rehabilitation, , and that your caregiver, whoever is there, their beliefs are Very, very critical in this to be able to stack those dubs or to be able to really celebrate those [00:43:00] wins that you have, , inch by inch is essential.

It’s a little twitch of the finger. That’s a win. Stack it. Let him know it. I mean, my guy here, Dr. Ken is planting trees. He’s probably never going to sit in the shade of and one other thing I noticed is he does does stuff for the intention. Not so much the attention. He really leans in and wants to help the stroke.

Survivors and their caregivers. He’s really about contentment and the way that he explained things in layman’s terms For me to understand it was fantastic in the way his book is written Which I , I did cheat a little bit go into the kindle version and kind of read, Into it in the free sample is that’s what I got and all I can say is this guy levels up his health He levels up his wealth He’s a handsome devil.

He’s earned his varsity squad letter here at time to shine today. Doc, thank you so much for coming on. We absolutely love your guts here, brother.

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: Oh, thank you so much. It’s been actually a fantastic chat. I, I, I, I thoroughly enjoyed it and we are going to have to meet at some stage and I really appreciate you.

When you’re coming, you come to Ireland, you [00:44:00] have to let me know. Is that all right?

L. Scott Ferguson: You got

Dr. Kenneth Monaghan: a hundred percent. We’ll chat soon my friend. Oh, brilliant. Thank you very, very much.