Life Design

We called Javan as we listened to his podcasts for years about making better decisions. We were at a cross roads with our farm and family. The time was very valuable to us. You’re really good at this.

We needed attention and someone to hear us out. You listened in a very non-judgemental way to very judgemental stuff! The homework you provided gives us something solid to work on instead of being lost in fatigue.

We’ve been looking at context work for years and we get it now. We can’t get bogged down with our stuff. Thank you.

Hi Javan, just a quick message to say I’ve just listened to two of your interviews with Diego Footer, and wanted to say how much I’ve taken from them. Thanks so much for doing the work and sharing it. I appreciate it.

I run a small farm in Wales and currently taking some time away for the first time in 3 years and I’m utilizing your advice and pondering what you’re saying.

So good! I will be watching this several times.

I first heard about Javan on the Permaculture Voices podcast, which coincided nicely during the time my husband and I were deep in a love affair with the idea of being “farmers”. After hearing about his system, my husband and I had some difficult and uncomfortable conversations about whether farming really fits into our context, and it turns out it didn’t. I definitely shed some tears. BUT! We ended up buying a little house in my hometown of Grand Forks, BC, we can comfortably afford our lifestyle, and my kids get to grow up near grandparents. I am so grateful that this is the direction we took. Thank you, Javan!

I sought help from Javan because I was feeling so sick of my job, and unsure where to begin in making a change.
He ended up helping me in many areas of my life with his solid guidance.
I went from feeling overwhelmed in many areas, to having tools to take things on at the right speed to see results without burning out.
I feel more in control of my life, I can see the next few steps ahead of me, and I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.

Thanks a lot!

Going through Holistic Life Context with Javan is like learning to rewire your brain.

Thinking in terms of your own Holistic Life Context (HLC) is akin to training your brain like a muscle. The more your brain thinks in holistic terms, the more you’re able to deal with complexity, to make more difficult decisions, instead of automatically agreeing to something and hoping for the best.

It’s a new skill.  A highly useful skill, but a new one.

Making my own context was a challenge at first, but one worthy of doing because the benefits are so lifelong and incredible. Holistic Life Context offers you a way to check your decisions, to find directions in the fog of uncertainty.  If you’re like me and sometimes feel lost in opportunities, possibilities, and directionless in the entrepreneurial journey,

Javan’s personal holistic context work is a powerful tool to set yourself on the right track.

I’m still learning to use it like a muscle, but I’m intrenching it like a habit in my head, so every decision that comes my way can be run through context so I can make good decisions for my life, vs. decisions making my life for me.

Life’s a long journey, and often a lonely one, but his methods allow me to adjust and achieve lifelong goals that always seemed out of reach.  Little by little though, with my context, I am seeing results.  The more you use it, the better it gets, and the more it helps you.

You have to commit though, and I’m glad I did.

We wanted to work with Javan specifically because we knew we could trust him with the tender, fragile aspects of our relationship. We were looking to turn the murky depths of communicating about difficult things into a resilient framework for uncovering the real pitfalls between us. Working with Javan, we steadily developed an amazing arsenal of strength and commonality for our partnership—something we knew was there, but could only fully access and appreciate through the exercise of developing a holistic context.  The swamp of communication hasn’t disappeared, But we spend far less time trying to navigate it, and far more time directing ourselves toward the life we want to live as a result of this work. If you have your eyes open and are ready to dig deep, we can’t recommend his role as self-development sherpa with the process of life design highly enough.

I’m a small intensive mixed vegetable farmer (dancing star farm) and permaculture instructor (Shenandoah Permaculture Institute) on the east coast. prior to finding my way to the farming world I worked as a child and family therapist for a decade. I’ve worked to integrate mental health hygiene and tools to navigate the human sector into the courses we do at SPI. I heard you on a podcast recently and value how you’ve articulated “tools of sovereignty” You were clear and inspiring. Thank you for adding this value to the permaculture conversation!

A few weeks ago I had convinced myself that I  needed to spend $25,000 on a new/used truck for my company which is looking to expand it’s permaculture installations this year.

I’ve been in the landscape industry for over 30 years and was not looking forward to more time in the field as I would deep down prefer design or education work. I looked at this decision as a means to an end…I’ll be happy when.

During day one of Javan’s Holistic Life Context group course it became obvious that I was headed down the wrong path, or at least one that I hadn’t fully explored, craft the holistic goals first then test them against the decision.

These are currently under development but I can feel that this truck purchase is not going to make the cut. Javan thanks for saving me $25,000.

Hello from South Africa,

I just wanted to express my gratitude to both of you and the work you do.  I’m hoping that this gratitude will soon be monetary either in contribution or utilization of your services.

I’ve recently been through a journey of personal discovery spurred on by a bought of circumstantial depression (or so I thought) and the realization that my actions, or lack thereof, are shaping my children’s future (3 and 1).  The search for a fulfilling career, or happiness, or joy, or contentedness has led me through a lot of personal reflection, learning what my ‘points or skills of brilliance’ are,  farming, permaculture, to sustainable business.  From the 1000’s of hours of research I’ve done, the conversations between you two have stood out as the most pertinent to my… dilemma.  Thank you for putting yourselves out there and encouraging others to do the same.  I’ve come to a spot where I can take action knowing nothing is certain, failure is almost guaranteed and is a good thing if you see it for what it is….. experience, learning, growth.

I’m again excited for what the future holds and looking forward to sharing this world with people such as yourselves.

Again many thanks from this side of heaven