The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall

What does gratitude actually mean? It isn’t just about being nice or saying thank you a lot. According to Chester Elton, who has been called “the apostle of appreciation”, gratitude cuts to the heart of who we really are. Gratitude exists at an emotional level and is about who is in our lives, what we find meaningful and how we live.  If we make time for gratitude, we can find a way to live that makes everything less stressful. In this episode, Chester and Andrew talk through the ways we can build gratitude into everyday life, adding meaning and lightness to our daily routines. Chester has also carried out extensive research into how gratitude can help us lead in the workplace. His books, co-authored with Adrian Gostick,  include Leading With Gratitude and All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results. Follow Up 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. Read Chester Elton’s Leading with Gratitude Book Sign up for Chester Elton’s free LinkedIn newsletter, The Gratitude Journal Read Chester Elton’s article on Why We Should be Grateful for Hard Times Read Jay Shetty’s book Think Like A Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day Read Andrew’s advice on keeping a journal of your life and emotions. Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw   

You exist at your own centre; so you are the only one who is in the right place to look and understand your individual being. Richard Lang has devoted his life to exploring and teaching “the headless way”: a unique system to answer the question of what life means and who you really are.  Richard met Douglas Harding, author of On Having No Head, as a teenager, and knew immediately that the headless way was what he had been looking for. He now runs workshops on the headless way, produces videos, and has set up the Shollond Trust, which publishes Douglas Harding’s and other books on the subject.  Along the way, Richard has also spent thirty years practising as a psychotherapist, and teaching Tai Chi and dance.  Follow Up 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  Learn more about the headless way, including free resources and meetings: www.headless.org Find books on the headless way: Seeing Who You Really Are https://www.headless.org/harding-books/seeing-who-you-really-are Open to the Source https://www.headless.org/harding-books/open-to-the-source Celebrating who you are  https://www.headless.org/harding-books/celebrating-who-we-are  The Man With No Head https://www.headless.org/harding-books/the-man-with-no-head Everyday Seeing  https://www.headless.org/harding-books/everyday-seeing Listen to the Headless Way podcast: https://www.headless.org/headless-way-podcasts Find videos on the headless way on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/profile?user=headexchange Listen to Andrew’s interview with Martina Schneider on spiritual therapy: https://themeaningfullife.podbean.com/e/ep11-martina-schneider-spiritual-therapy/  Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/wake-up-and-change-your-life-how-to-survive-a-crisis-and-be-stronger-wiser-and-happier/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw 

How do we find meaning out of a difficult childhood and a troubled mother-daughter relationship? In this episode Nigerian-American writer, mindfulness practitioner and educator Itoro Bassey speaks with Andrew about how to mother the wounded child inside. Itoro now lives in Nigeria (after being born and raised in the USA) and is the founder of the digital course, From Surviving to Thriving: Becoming Your Own Inner Author. This course uses writing and energy work to bring students into the present moment.  Itoro has published on culture, identity, and healing for over ten years and now offers intuitive counselling sessions for those in need of support. Follow Up 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  Follow Itoro Bassey on Instagram or contact her at itoro.paula@gmail.com Read some of Itoro’s writing on culture, family and identity: How to let go of your family's expectations. Becoming My Own Woman... The Nigerian and tenderness How I’m Mothering the Wounded Kid Inside Who Just Wanted Love Read about Questions for Ada by Ijeoma Umebinyuo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26141400-questions-for-ada  Read Andrew’s memoir on the loss of his partner, My Mourning Year https://mymourningyear.com  Get Andrew’s advice on dealing with painful feelings: https://andrewgmarshall.com/seven-ways-to-cope-with-painful-feelings/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw 

2020 wasn’t the easiest year to feel in control of our lives: a lot of us experienced loss, loneliness, and illness. Yet through my podcast, I feel like I learnt a lot about changing your life in a meaningful way. My guests shared wisdom on so many different aspects of life - sex, love, masculinity, gender, disability, companionship, spirituality, therapy, cynicism, to name just a few - and I feel lucky to have come out of 2020 quite a bit wiser and more at peace, thanks to them. So here are my reflections on the ten most important things I learnt from The Meaningful Life.  If you’re new to the podcast, this should make a great leaping in point, as I talk through what I learnt from each of my 2020 guests.  Thank you to you all for listening, to the guests I’ve been so lucky to have on the show, and to my gifted and enthusiastic producer, Michael Dooney.  Follow Up 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  Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/wake-up-and-change-your-life-how-to-survive-a-crisis-and-be-stronger-wiser-and-happier/  Read Andrew’s thoughts on what the “new normal” will look like for you and your partner as more of us are vaccinated and the pandemic hopefully recedes: https://andrewgmarshall.com/marriage-and-the-global-pandemic-will-things-ever-return-to-normal/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw 

Nathanael Garrett Novosel started his quest to understand the meaning of life at the age of six. He is the author of The Meaning of Life: A Guide To Finding Your Life’s Purpose, which sets out 8 concepts key to finding meaning. In his book and in his teachings Nathanael helps people answer questions like “why are you here?”,  “how does life work?” and “what are you supposed to do with your existence?”.   Nathanael has researched psychology, evolutionary biology, organizational best practices, leadership decision making, business, technology, finance, and philosophy to understand the world as we know it. He worked extensively with senior executives, before deciding to devote his skills to helping people to live the best lives possible. In this episode, Nathanael and Andrew discuss the 8 concepts, Nathanael’s own journey of research and insight, and how his autism helped him develop his deep understanding of the meaning of life.    Follow Up 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  Find out about Nathanael’s book, The Meaning of Life, and the 8 concepts it outlines: https://www.yourmeaninginlife.com and buy the book here https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-meaning-of-life-nathanael-garrett-novosel/1135680135 Follow Nathanael on social media:  Twitter https://twitter.com/LifetheBook Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LifetheBook Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/lifethebook/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/themeaningoflifebook/ Hear Carol Dweck’s TED talk on growth mindset: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en  Find out more about James Hollis’ book, Living an Examined Life https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36165956  Read Andrew’s thoughts on what to do if you or your partner feel like you’re in the throes of what society would call a midlife crisis: https://andrewgmarshall.com/ten-tell-tale-signs-midlife-crisis/  Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/wake-up-and-change-your-life-how-to-survive-a-crisis-and-be-stronger-wiser-and-happier/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw   

Martina Schneider is a psychologist and a teacher of Vipassana meditation. Her work with clients combines a therapeutic and a spiritual approach. In this episode, she talks with Andrew about her own spiritual journey, including intensive study of the Vedanta tradition in India and being ordained as a nun. Martina offers her thoughts on the time and the deep commitment it requires truly to understand the self and to be at peace with it.   Follow Up 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  Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/wake-up-and-change-your-life-how-to-survive-a-crisis-and-be-stronger-wiser-and-happier/  Read Andrew’s thoughts on what to do if you or your partner feel like you’re in the throes of what society would call a midlife crisis: https://andrewgmarshall.com/ten-tell-tale-signs-midlife-crisis/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw 

Joe Horton founded Guild of Dads after losing his own father in 2015. This huge loss launched him on a journey of self-discovery, during which he was able to shape a vision for himself and begin to create a more meaningful life.  Joe’s Guild of Dads podcast and growing social movement now help many other dads to reflect on their own lives and pinpoint the ways they can take action to find meaning. Joe’s “Vision + Action = Meaning” equation is helping many men take back control and find the fulfilment they need. In this episode, Andrew and Joe discuss the ways in which lack of meaning is having a catastrophic effect on many dads’ lives. They talk through the main obstacles and “saboteurs” that prevent dads from making essential changes.   Follow Up 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  Listen to Joe’s Guild of Dads podcast here: https://bit.ly/GODpodcast  Get a free copy of Joe’s ebook The V.A.M. Blueprint: https://bit.ly/VAMebook  Drop an email to Joe at joe@guildofdads.com if you’re interested in joining his new support group for dads.  Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier https://bit.ly/wakeupandchange  Read Andrew’s thoughts on what to do if you or your partner feel like you’re in the throes of what society would call a midlife crisis: https://bit.ly/midlifecrisisblog  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw 

In 2017, Rachel Weiss watched a TV programme about the menopause and was inspired to hold a Menopause Café. This has now turned into an international movement of pop-up events where women and the men in their lives meet to drink tea, eat cake and talk menopause. The Menopause Café is modelled on the Death Café movement, founded by Jon Underwood.  In this episode, Rachel and Andrew talk about women’s experiences of menopause and the impact on their lives and relationships. The menopause has long been a taboo subject, and raises profound issues of shame and silence around the female body. Women have suffered due to the lack of knowledge or public conversation about the menopause, and so have their partners.  The Menopause Cafe is playing a crucial role in an increasingly more open discourse on the menopause, helping women to live through this stage of their lives with understanding rather than fear and loneliness.  Follow Up 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  Find out more about the Menopause Café  www.menopausecafe.net Rachel has written about the Menopause Café in “M-Boldened: Menopause Conversations We All Need to Have” The world’s only Menopause Festival takes place on April 30th and May 1st 2021 #FlushFest2021 in Perth, Scotland, and online. The Menopause Café  was inspired by the Death Café - learn more here: www.deathcafe.com  Learn about Rachel’s work with coaching and counselling clients at Rowan Consultancy www.rowan-consultancy.co.uk or find out about enrolling on the COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills, a 120-hour course online or face-to-face, starting August 2021. Find out more about dealing with midlife and the relationship issues it can cause in Andrew’s book It’s Not a Midlife Crisis, It’s an Opportunity  https://bit.ly/midlifecrisisbook  Read Andrew’s advice on some of the common issues faced inside long-term marriages in his article on avoiding the “silver divorce”: https://bit.ly/silverdivorce  Follow Rachel on:  Twitter: @Menopause_Cafe @Rowan_Rachel @Rowanconsult Instagram: @Menopause_Cafe Facebook: www.facebook.com/menocafe17 and www.facebook.com/RowanConsultancy YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/RowanConsultancy Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw

Guardian columnist Tim Dowling has spent thirteen years chronicling his marriage and family life for the Weekend magazine. His self-deprecating humour and determinedly cynical approach have made him hugely popular with readers. Rare is the Saturday Guardian reader who doesn’t flip first to the magazine to see what’s happening with Tim’s pets, banjo career and family.  In this episode, Tim and Andrew discuss the layers that go into a joke. What exactly is it that we’re doing when we laugh at ourselves and our own life? Humour can be about storytelling, making sense of the past, finding honesty and creating meaning. It can be a defence mechanism, and a form of self-protection for the intensely shy.  Tim’s readers have watched him move from the chaos of working and parenting younger children to a different stage of midlife. The column has changed, and so has everyone featured in it. Andrew and Tim discuss new hobbies, the relaxation that can come with being older, and the boundaries that need to go up when writing about family for so long.  Follow Up 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  Listen to Tim Dowling’s audiobook How To Be Happy All The Time: The Unexpected Joys of Being a Cynic: Everything Bad Is Good for You https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Be-Happy-All-the-Time-Audiobook/1529345014 Find out more about dealing with midlife and the relationship issues it can cause in Andrew’s book It’s Not a Midlife Crisis, It’s an Opportunity  https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/its-not-a-midlife-crisis-its-an-opportunity-how-to-be-forty-or-fifty-something-without-going-off-the-rails/  Read about Andrew’s memoir, My Mourning Year https://mymourningyear.com  Read about Ken Wilber’s book, No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/449818.No_Boundary  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw    

So much of the meaning we find in life comes from reaching out to help others. Charlotte Fielder has been the Head of Volunteering and Fostering at London’s famous Battersea Dogs and Cats Home since 2015. She finds intense meaning in giving animals a second chance and supporting the Battersea volunteers who work for love, not money.  Charlotte is herself a failed foster carer after rehoming Max in August 2017. Dogs have been an enormous part of her life, and she talks with Andrew about the magic of dogs in family relationships and the joy and meaning they bring to individuals.  Charlotte has also worked extensively to support children with upper limb difference. She is a patron of EDRIC (The European Dysmelia Reference Information Centre) a not for profit organisation that shares knowledge with those affected by congenital limb loss. She is also the author of ‘Shared Experiences,’ a resource for the families of these children. Charlotte worked for 33 years in UK Government agencies including the Home Office and National Criminal Intelligence Service before leaving to work in volunteer services at a hospice. Her desire was to spend the last ten years of her working life making a difference, and when she arrived in Battersea in 2015 she felt she was “coming home”.  Follow Up 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  Learn about the European Dysmelia Reference Information Centre https://www.dysnet.org  Discover Andrew’s memoir, The Power of Dog, about how his dog Flash helped him recover from the loss of his partner. https://andrewgmarshall.com/the-power-of-dog/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on: Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgmarshall  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndrewGMarshallTherapy  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5gT7ru5sblpFaU2-iWTTw