Practising Radical Love...

31 March, 2025

Dear Friends,

This month, we’ve been reflecting on the essence of Radical Love in celebration of Satish Kumar & June Mitchell’s upcoming course in April, held at Hawkwood College, in partnership with Schumacher Wild. What better way to explore Radical Love than through the lens of lived experience. For this, we invited our very own Sarah Hawkins to share her reflections on participating in the course and on how Radical Love shows up in daily life.

Sarah shares, “My corporate conditioning had left me questioning my role, my life’s purpose and I realised that I was arriving at a crossroads - do I stay and once again bury a deep knowing of needing to pivot or do I surrender to the intuition I was feeling? Luckily, this coincided with the Radical Love short course at Schumacher, which enabled not only a way forward, but a new way of being in the world.

The course started with a simple explanation of how to cultivate love from Satish, “recognise the things you like and appreciate in others, see them as potential and watch them grow!”. It was a simple yet sweet reminder that love can be seen as a foundational organising principle of the universe. Supported by June’s deep meditation and Qi Gong techniques, slowly I found myself opening up, not only physically but mentally and emotionally, to new ways of thinking, seeing and being in the world. A process that I can only describe as encountering innate aliveness and consciousness. This feeling was as equally confronting as it was inspiring, as it led me to experience the interconnected nature of all life, and how humans are just one part of it.

Over the 3 days I experienced a profound relinquishing of ego - no longer did my conditioned ways stand for much, nor did they serve much purpose in this deeply soulful environment. I found myself connecting and listening to others with a deeper sense of humility and curiosity as my firm sense of self slowly metamorphosed into a more reflective state.

What struck me most was a deep questioning of the linear mechanics of control that the corporate world had taught me so well. I was reminded of ‘The Four C’s’ as Satish had described as the obstacles that ‘cut away’ at love; Criticism, Complaining, Comparing and Controlling. I recognised that these ‘obstacles’ were ever present in my professional life and that maybe this was the source of the discontent and discomfort that I was feeling. 

After participating in the Radical Love short course, I left my corporate job and went to study a Masters degree at Schumacher College. This helped me to continue my exploration of how to put Radical Love into practice. Life now feels so much more vibrant, full of possibility and hope. I have learnt that to put ‘relationships’ first, to put love first, through being in relationship with myself, with others, and with all of life, is the perfect antidote to the demands of the modern world we find ourselves in.

Since choosing to surrender to Radical Love, I have learnt not only to let go of perfectionism and control, but to let in the beauty and complexities of life, and I’ve not looked back since. Participating in the Radical Love course marked a turning point in my life for which I am truly grateful - to have witnessed, experienced and since made a conscious choice to live with love as a central life force has been all kinds of wonderful”.

So if, like Sarah, you’re ready to explore what it means to put love ‘into practice’ in our everyday lives and work, join Satish & June at Hawkwood college on one of the few remaining places next week here. Or if you are at a crossroads and ready to take a larger jump into the unknown, applications for our New Schumacher Foundation course are open until the 10th April. 

With Radical Love,

The Schumacher Wild team x

P.S. - We’re now on Substack and actively contributing new content every month. The intent of our page is to offer a deeper dive into our monthly themes and to give a little taste of our pedagogies and philosophies. Head over to read this month’s feature article by Satish on our Substack page now!

Art of Invitation workshop: putting ‘love’ into action through designing creative, accessible invitations to reflect and to share. Image - Emma Kidd.