I love the connection skills that I’ve learned to incorporate through these practices. I feel close to my peers and care for them in ways I never would have imagined, as I get to listen and share stories with them as we practice together. It has also allowed me to reconnect with you Jacoby, a teacher I thought highly of despite only getting a short time to practice with you back in Brooklyn. It’s been a true gift, one that was so needed

Jacoby guides students into themselves to excavate their internal layers. His ability to lead a group of people in such an introspective way is remarkable. We are allowed to escape into ourselves while staying present in focus and physicality – all over Zoom. His class is truly a magical experience. Jacoby is a grounding force of nature – a calm, methodical teacher while also inspiring and good-humored. I have not come across another teacher like him.

Yoga, in combination with lifting and training, has been my saving grace for keeping up my mental health and focus. As an athlete, it is difficult for me to not get stuck in the trap of “pedal to the metal” at all times, and I feel I get lost in myself – out if touch with my spiritual and mental self when I’m not combining yoga and exercise.

You created a space for us to connect with each other at the end of practice, to hear each others experiences, and to know we’re not alone.

I started practicing yoga during the pandemic and have only ever practiced yoga online and with Jacoby – at the recommendation of a friend. It has offered me consistency, reflective practices and ways to move my body when I felt trapped in my apartment and far from the people and pursuits that gave my life meaning. What I’ve experienced this year through online yoga practice has made me more grateful for my body & my agency — and for everyone else’s bodies & agency too!

Practicing yoga online has meant having a consistent, welcoming, thoughtful space for me to show up to every week; a space that is both for my own benefit but also brings me into community with other queer and trans folks across the country. It has been a marker to hold myself accountable to moving and being in touch with my body even during such a hard time, and pushed myself to both share and hold space for others in the moment.

I am always nourished, body, mind, heart and soul by your classes. These teachings, in relation to current events, and really pushing and inviting your students to connect this spiritual practice with the need to examine cycles of violence within our lives and society. I come to be with your anti-racist leadership as a white person, and to watch / do that work unfolding within all your students and myself. It is a great comfort to me to see this one way of practicing anti-racism and cultivating liberation.

This online space has meant so much to me. It has allowed me to continue practicing with others. It has been a place where I can show up exactly as I am. A place where I can be messy and my best. In this space I have met new people, learned, and explored. It is one of the few places where I’ve felt like I can be with all that the pandemic has brought up without feeling like I need to edit or hold back.

Your classes also helped sustain me as I was dealing with difficulties in my personal life. As I prepare to transition my family again, I am looking to your virtual classes to remain grounded and curious and to remain connected.

If it weren’t for your virtual classes, I wouldn’t be practicing at all! You are the most insightful and wise teacher we have ever had. Being able to study with you during (really, because of) the pandemic has been a huge gift.

At a great time of rupture on multiple levels in my life your classes have provided a sense of purpose, community, healing, and maybe most importantly a time to (re) connect with my body in meaningful ways. The weekly classes have helped me stay grounded and come into knowing, trusting, and listening to myself in complex and generative ways. Thank you.