Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity. Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life. So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer...
https://andrewgmarshall.com/podcasts/
episode 8: Tim Dowling: Can cynicism improve your life?
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