Standing in Love: Unpacking and Unlocking the Supreme Emotion

Love is all around us. It flows through every aspect of our lives and has inspired legions of people to talk, write, paint, act, and fight for it. Moreover, love affects our biological, mental, and physical states of being. A lack of love in ones life can have disastrous effects while an abundance of love can produce life-enhancing rewards. Positive psychology is the study of what makes life worth living and the strengths and virtues that enable people to live within optimal ranges of human functioning. Through a positive psychology lens and a review of the current literature, this capstone is an exploration into the contextual and biological implications of love, why it is a key component into what makes life worth living, and how people can learn to cultivate more love in their lives through empirically-tested activities and exercises.