Are you living a life you really believe in, or are you filling in time until your “real life” begins? Are you waiting on marriage, a better job, a new exercise regime or a beautiful house to create an authentic life?

Humans do need to have goals and plans, but it is also destructive to ignore those inner voices telling us what would bring us individual meaning.

In this classic episode, Andrew and PHILIP CARR-GOMM discuss how to start developing your authentic self right now, rather than endlessly kicking that important ball further down the road.

Philip Carr-Gomm is an expert in psychosynthesis, an “awe-inspiring territory that has the power to transform us”. He believes that something magical happens when the worlds of modern psychology and ancient spiritual teachings are brought together. Philip has studied Druidry extensively and from 1988-2020 was the leader of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He has a degree in Psychology and has trained in psychotherapy, play therapy, Montessori education, yoga nidra, mindfulness meditation and Sophrology. Philip recently created an online school, The Art of Living Well, to offer courses combining psychological and spiritual understanding.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

This week supporters will hear:

• Three Things Philip Carr-Gomm 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin https://andrewgmarshall.com/mens-retreat/

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/

Take a look at Philip Carr-Gomm’s website

Find out more about the courses offered at Philip’s online school, The Art of Living Well

Follow Philip on Instagram at @philipcarrgomm and on Facebook at @philip.carrgomm

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

How do you keep the spark alive in your relationship when there are kids involved and you have ten, twenty, or thirty years on the clock?

This week I talk to CAROLYN SHARP, a US-based marital therapist, and the author of Fire It Up: Four Secrets to Reigniting Intimacy and Joy in Your Relationship. We cover:

• Purpose: could you define a purpose for your marriage?
• Sex: how to talk about it honestly and effectively.
• Conflict: handling disagreements better
• Happiness: the habits that create lasting joy
• Acceptance: how practicing radical acceptance will feed your relationship.

Carolyn has a master of social work from Portland State University and has extensive training in attachment, neuroscience, trauma, and mindfulness. She is an experienced couples therapist and coach, with twenty-five years of training and practice in helping people build vital, vibrant, and secure functioning relationships through one-on-one and group couples coaching, workshops, retreats, and intensives. She and her husband and dogs live in northern Massachusetts.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

This week supporters will hear:

• How to totally accept your partner
• Three Things Carolyn Sharp 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin

Read Carolyn Sharp’s book, Fire It Up: Four Secrets to Reigniting Intimacy and Joy in Your Relationship.

Take a look at Carolyn Sharp’s retreats and couple coaching work, or at her therapy website,

Follow Carolyn Sharp on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram @secureconnectionscoach and on YouTube @carolynsharp9053

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

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation” (Henry Thoreau).

In this classic episode, Andrew interviews therapist SIMON ROE. Simon has based his life’s work on helping men live an authentic life. After himself going through a period of quiet desperation in his mid-thirties, he went on to help men break the silence, find “the song inside” and overcome their experiences of depression, violence and loneliness.

Simon has also worked extensively with boys and their fathers to create rites of passage that help boys claim a strong, authentic sense of their developing manhood.

Simon Roe originally trained as a body psychotherapist, and is also a co-leader of the Mandorla Men’s Rites of Passage programme. He has worked extensively with perpetrators of domestic violence, and is a Respect approved trainer and supervisor. Simon is also trained in process oriented psychology.

Simon and Andrew also discuss the idea of answering “the call to adventure”, an idea powerfully captured in this poem by Rainer Maria Rilke:

Sometimes A Man Stands Up During Supper

Sometimes a man stands up during supper

and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,

because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.

And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

And another man, who remains inside his own house,

dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,

so that his children have to go far out into the world

toward that same church , which he forgot.

Rainer Maria Rilke ( trans. Robert Bly)

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

This week supporters will hear:

• Three Things Simon Roe 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin.

Visit Simon Roe’s website

Learn about the Kingfisher Project, a community dedicated to rites of passage for boys aged 13-16.

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