Love 2.0

Love 2.0 is one of the major works by the American positive psychologist Barbara L. Fredrickson, originally titled Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become; the Chinese edition was translated by Xiao Xiao and published by CITIC Press in 2014, with the subtitle "How Does Love Affect Our Thinking, Behavior, Social Life, and Life?" The book is divided into two parts, "What Love Is" and "The Method of Love." The first part begins from research in positive psychology and psychophysiology and reexamines the ancient question of love: the author argues that love is not merely an enduring supreme emotion, nor is it limited to romance, family, and friendship, but is a brief, micro-level emotional connection and positive resonance that arises between people (even strangers); this connection influences our thinking, behavior, health, and well-being through bodily and neural mechanisms. The book discusses physiological mechanisms such as oxytocin and the ripple effects of love in parent-child relationships and social networks. The second part turns to practice, introducing a series of actionable "love exercises": a daily reflection exercise, loving-kindness meditation, self-compassion meditation, empathy exercises, and methods for noticing and responding to others in daily life and for practicing loving more people. The author weaves in the true stories of many ordinary people to show that loving oneself, loving others, and even universal love are capacities that can be gradually strengthened through conscious practice. The book continues the author's "broaden-and-build" theory, viewing love as a cultivable psychological resource, and is suitable for readers who want to reunderstand love from a scientific perspective and improve their relationships and physical and mental well-being.