Matthew Fray shares his poignant journey through divorce, emphasizing how small issues can lead to major relationship breakdowns. He discusses the importance of emotional vulnerability and the societal pressures men face in expressing feelings. The conversation also highlights the devastating effects of emotional invalidation and the necessity of clear communication in co-parenting. Fray offers tools for rebuilding trust and intimacy, aiming to equip men with the emotional skills to foster healthier relationships and prevent future failures.

Mark Dean, a Jungian psychoanalyst and former art therapist, shares insights on creativity as a healing tool. He discusses how art transcends rational thought, connecting us to our souls. Mark highlights the psychological benefits of engaging with creativity, even in areas where we feel least talented. He explores the interplay between dreams and consciousness, revealing how creative expression can aid self-discovery. The conversation also touches on nurturing relationships and the importance of self-care drawn from fairy tales and personal narratives.

“Midlife is when those dreams we had when we were young but put aside to earn a living or raise a family can finally be revisited; it’s never too late to be what you wanted to be”.  This is the philosophy of Noon, a community for women in midlife created by Eleanor Mills. Eleanor experienced her own reckoning with midlife after leaving her job with the Sunday Times, confronting an empty nest and dealing with Covid. She embarked on a journey to explore new ways of living and find her “next act”. In this classic episode, Eleanor and Andrew discuss shifting your perspective on midlife and seeing it as a space without a map. Unlike your twenties, thirties and even forties, there are few expectations around family and career, meaning you can chart your own way and be what you’ve always wanted to be.  If you’re feeling lost or alone after decades of putting other people first, or are exhausted dealing with midlife stresses like divorce, bereavement, redundancy, difficult teens, elderly parents or health problems, then this is the episode for you.  Eleanor Mills is a British journalist who has worked for titles including The Sunday Times and The Times. She was the editorial director of The Sunday Times and editor of its magazine until March 2020. Eleanor is also the founder of https://www.noon.org.uk and  inherspace.co.uk  Subscriber Content This Week  If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:  Three Things Eleanor Mills knows to be true. AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees. Follow Up Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things  Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools Visit the Noon website and community created by Eleanor Mills.  Follow Eleanor on Twitter @EleanorMills, on Instagram @eleanorkjmills and on LinkedIn Find out more about Claire Du Bois and her Tree Sisters organisation. Take a look at Jarvis Smith’s business My Green Pod. Read Raynor Winn’s book The Salt Path Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

In this captivating discussion, Robert Carabelli, a physician, author, and spiritual teacher, reveals his top strategies for reigniting passion in long-term relationships. He emphasizes the divine nature of sex and encourages couples to embrace ongoing growth in their intimate lives. Topics include understanding sexual dynamics and desires, the role of self-care in maintaining intimacy, and how tapping into energetic systems can enhance connection. With insights on communication and mindfulness, Robert provides a roadmap for couples to keep their love alive.

How do we live knowing that we will die? How can we face death, and how should we prepare for it? Dr Kathryn Mannix has spent her professional life working in palliative care, and the teams she has worked on have been involved in 10-15 thousand deaths. In this classic episode, Kathryn shares her insights into what it’s like to die and how we can love and support someone approaching the end of their life. If you struggle with thoughts of death - be it from a generalised fear, a terminal diagnosis, or the loss of loved ones - Kathryn’s calm and honest approach will help.  As well as working as a consultant in palliative care medicine, Kathryn is the author of With the End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well, a collection of powerful human stories of life and death. The book draws on a lifetime of clinical experience to offer advice on facing death and living life in its shadow. Subscriber Content This Week  If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:  Three Things Kathryn Mannix knows to be true. AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees. Follow UpG Andrew is appearing at the Unlocking Love Summit, where he will be working with a couple recovering from infidelity. Register for the free summit here.  Get Andrew's free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things Take a look at Andrew's new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools Read Kathryn’s book With the End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well   Follow Kathryn on Twitter Find Oliver Sacks’ book Gratitude written at the end of his life. Read Andrew’s book on grieving the loss of his partner My Mourning Year Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Is there an uncomfortable gap between your life goals and the way you are actually living? Do you tell yourself what you want is financial security, but then rack up big online shopping debts? Or perhaps a solid, connected relationship is your goal, but instead you're prioritising work and ignoring your partner’s needs. This week, counselor and author Thais Gibson joins me to talk about SELF-SABOTAGE. According to Thais, self-sabotage arises from your subconscious, which wants something very different than your conscious mind is telling you. To move forward, you’ll need to uncover and challenge the patterns that are keeping you stuck.  Thais Gibson is a counsellor, best-selling author and co-founder of The Personal Development School. She has a Ph.D. and over 13 certifications in modalities ranging from CBT, NLP, somatic experiencing, internal family systems, to shadow work and hypnosis. Thais had nearly a decade of experience running a successful private practice and founded The Personal Development School, an online learning platform, to provide a more accessible, authentic way for clients to transform their lives. Thais is the bestselling author of Learning Love, and she and her husband split their time between Austin, Texas, and Toronto, Canada. Subscriber Content This Week  If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:  The Four Attachment Styles Three Things Thais Gibson knows to be true. AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees. Follow Up Get Andrew's free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things Take a look at Andrew's new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools Learn more about Thais Gibson’s work: Website: The Personal Development School Instagram: @thepersonaldevelopmentschool YouTube: The Personal Development School The Personal Development School Attachment Style Quiz: Take the quiz to find out your attachment style Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Itoro Bassey, a Nigerian-American writer and mindfulness educator, shares insights on healing the mother/daughter relationship. She emphasizes the importance of addressing inherited trauma for personal growth. The conversation dives into nurturing the inner child, recognizing flawed maternal figures, and the significance of boundaries. Itoro discusses how cultural expectations shape self-worth and offers strategies for self-acceptance. Through her experiences, she champions the journey of self-discovery and breaking silence to foster healthier familial bonds.

Many of us feel like we don’t quite “get” mindfulness. Even more have struggled to create a successful meditation practice. Andrew Holecek, author of I’m Mindful, Now What?, joins us this week to broaden and deepen our understanding of mindfulness, and show us how to integrate it into our daily lives.  Our host Andrew talks with our guest Andrew about: Why everyone can meditate, and how to start right now. The importance of connecting with your physical body.  The benefits and limitations of mindfulness Coping with emotions like anger, jealousy and fear using meditation and mindfulness. Andrew Holecek is a renowned author and humanitarian who teaches internationally on spirituality, meditation, lucid dreaming, and the art of dying. He has studied sleep yoga, bardo yoga, and other traditional practices with living masters in India and Nepal. Andrew’s books include Dreams of Light, Dream Yoga, and Reverse Meditation. His work has appeared in Psychology Today, Parabola, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Utne Reader, Buddhadharma, Light of Consciousness, and many other periodicals. He hosts the popular Edge of Mind podcast and is the founder of the Night Club community, a support platform for nocturnal meditations.  Subscriber Content This Week  If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:  Nocturnal Meditations Three Things Andrew Holecek knows to be true. AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees. Follow Up Get Andrew G. Marshall’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things  Read Andrew Holecek’s new book, I’m Mindful, Now What? Follow Andrew Holecek on Instagram and Facebook @andrewholecekauthor  Visit Andrew Holecek’s website https://www.andrewholecek.com  Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

In this classic episode, Andrew speaks with coach and teacher Dena Justice about the work she does with women experiencing burnout in their careers and relationships.  Despite loving her career, Dena hit a point where she felt empty - she was a classic case of a high performer and leader hitting burnout. That led her to choose a powerful pivot out of conventional employment and into her own business. At the same time, Dena also consciously decided to up-level ALL of her relationships, including spending 3 years intentionally single so she could identify and change the patterns she was repeating that were contributing to relationship dissatisfaction.  Combining all of her experience, Dena now helps other women who are high performers hitting burnout and are scared to admit they’ve hit a plateau or a wall. She helps them get out of their own way and move to the next level to increase their impact so they feel fulfilled and inspired again, as well as helping them create the relationships they want in their lives. Dena Justice is a coach, mentor and teacher. She is the creator of The Ecstatic Collective. Dena’s lifelong interest in mentoring and coaching began at age seven, when she took her first social-emotional training program. At 15, she taught her first personal development course. She has undertaken years of training in conflict management and mediation, leadership, communication, facilitation, and has two Master’s degrees. Subscriber Content This Week  If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:  Three Things Dena Justice knows to be true. AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees. Follow Up Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools Take a look at the courses Dena Justice offers in NLP and anxiety management, on her website  Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall   

Can the ancient teachings of Zen Buddhism help us engage with the challenges work, family and relationships throw our way? Teacher, author and Zen Buddhist priest Peter Coyote believes that they can: his new book, Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is, argues that Zen can be both a creative problem-solving mechanism and a moral guide; ideal for the stresses and problems we face day-to-day. Andrew and Peter discuss: How Peter found Buddhism and became a Zen Buddhist priest.  Why Buddhism ISN’T about turning away from the world. Why we need more than just “self-help”. How Zen Buddhism helps us engage with the suffering we see in the world. The importance of meditation. The usefulness of Buddhist teachings like The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Peter Coyote is an award-winning actor, narrator, and Zen teacher. He is recognized for his acting in 160 films including E.T., Outrageous Fortune, Bitter Moon and Cross Creek, and his narration work in over 140 documentaries. He narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century, winning an Emmy Award, as well as fourteen Ken Burns documentaries, including The Roosevelts, for which he won a second Emmy. In 2011 he was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and in 2015 received “transmission” from his teacher, making him an independent Zen teacher who has ordained his own priests. His latest book is Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is, and he is also the author of several volumes of poetry.  Follow Up Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools Read Peter Coyote’s book Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is Visit Peter Coyote’s website  Follow Peter Coyote on Facebook @AuthenticPeterCoyote   Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall