Love and Flourishing | Seminar

This seminar explores the VIA character strength of love as a core contributor to wellbeing, belonging, and sustained flourishing within higher education contexts. Love is examined as the capacity to form, maintain, and value close, reciprocal relationships characterised by care, trust, empathy, and mutual presence. Drawing on evidence from positive psychology and relational wellbeing research, the seminar positions love not as sentimentality or obligation, but as a learnable and regulatable strength that supports psychological safety, resilience, engagement, and meaning. Participants are guided to reflect on how love shows up in their academic lives, relationships, and leadership roles, with particular attention to the balance between connection and boundaries. The seminar addresses the optimal use of love, as well as the risks associated with overuse (such as boundary erosion and emotional exhaustion) and underuse (such as disconnection and relational avoidance). Through reflective exercises, discussion, and applied frameworks, participants are supported in identifying practical ways to cultivate healthier, more sustaining relationships while maintaining self-care and personal responsibility. The seminar concludes with a structured action-planning component to support intentional application of love in daily academic and personal contexts. Learning Outcomes By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to: Define the VIA character strength of love and distinguish it from related concepts such as kindness, attachment, obligation, or emotional dependence. Explain the role of love in wellbeing and flourishing, particularly its contribution to belonging, resilience, engagement, and psychological safety in a university context. Identify examples of optimal, overused, and underused expressions of love, and recognise how each pattern can impact academic performance, relationships, and wellbeing. Reflect critically on their own relational patterns, including how they give and receive care, support, and emotional presence. Apply the character strength of love intentionally, using practical strategies to strengthen relationships while maintaining healthy boundaries and self-care. Develop a personalised action plan for cultivating love in everyday academic and personal interactions, informed by reflective practice and goal-setting principles.