Circles — User Manual

Circles are Satya's community spaces where people come together around shared wellness interests. Whether you want casual discussion, daily practice accountability, or a structured multi-day journey, there is a Circle type for you.

Table of Contents

1. Discovering Circles
2. Joining & Leaving
3. Circle Types
4. Privacy Levels
5. Posting & Interacting
6. Practice Tracking
7. Journeys
8. Creating a Circle
9. Managing Your Circle
10. Rituals (Automated Prompts)
11. FAQ & Troubleshooting

1. Discovering Circles

Visit Circles from the main navigation to browse available circles.

Browsing

The browse page shows a card grid of circles. Each card displays:

• Cover image (or a type-based placeholder)
• Circle name and short description
• Member count
• Circle type badge (Community, Practice, or Journey)
• A privacy indicator for private circles

Search & Filter

• Search — Type a name or keyword to find circles by name or description.
• Type filter — Click All, Community, Practice, or Journey to narrow results.

Results are paginated, 12 per page.

What you won't see

Secret circles do not appear in browse results. You can only access a secret circle through a direct link or invitation.

2. Joining & Leaving

Joining

Click the Join button on a circle's card or detail page. Joining is instant for public and private circles. Secret circles require an invitation — there is no self-join option.

Some circles have a member cap. If the circle is full, you will see a message and cannot join until a spot opens.

Leaving

On the circle's detail page, click Leave Circle. You will be asked to confirm. Your posts remain in the circle after you leave.

Note: Circle owners cannot leave their own circle. Transfer ownership first (contact support if needed).

3. Circle Types

Satya offers three types of circles, each with features tailored to different goals.

Community

General-purpose groups for discussion. Members can post, react, comment, and share ideas. There are no tracking or progress features — just conversation.

Best for: Discussion groups, hobby communities, support networks.

Practice

Everything in Community, plus built-in practice logging and streak tracking. Members can log wellness sessions (meditation, yoga, breathwork, journaling, movement, or general), track personal streaks, and see aggregated circle statistics.

Best for: Meditation groups, yoga communities, wellness accountability circles.

Journey

Everything in Community, plus a structured day-by-day program. The circle owner defines a journey with a start date, end date, and content for each day. Days unlock automatically based on the calendar — everyone progresses together as a cohort.

Best for: 7-day challenges, 21-day programs, guided wellness courses.

4. Privacy Levels

Every circle has one of three privacy settings:

• Public circles are fully open — anyone can browse the feed without joining.
• Private circles appear in search but their feed is hidden behind a lock icon until you join.
• Secret circles are invisible to non-members. Visiting the URL directly returns a "not found" page.

5. Posting & Interacting

Creating a Post

As a circle member, you will see a post composer at the top of the feed. Select a post type, write your content, and optionally attach an image.

Post Types

Reactions

Click the reaction button on any post to react with one of six emojis: thumbs up, heart, laugh, wow, sad, or angry. The post shows a summary of all reactions.

Comments

Click the comment count beneath a post to open the full post page and add a comment. Comments are threaded beneath the original post.

Pinned Posts

Admins and moderators can pin important posts to the top of the feed. Pinned posts display a colored border and a "Pinned" badge so they stand out.

6. Practice Tracking

Practice tracking is available in all circle types but is the core feature of Practice circles.

Logging a Session

Open the Practice panel in the sidebar and click Log Practice. Fill in:

1. Practice type — Choose from meditation, yoga, breathwork, journaling, movement, or general.
2. Duration — Slide to set how long you practiced (5–120 minutes).
3. Mood before & after (optional) — Rate your mood on a 1–5 scale before and after the session. This contributes to the circle's average mood improvement stat.
4. Notes (optional) — Add a personal reflection.
5. Visibility — Choose who can see this log:
   • Private — Only you.
   • Group — Members of this circle.
   • Public — Anyone visiting this circle.

Click Save to record your session.

Streaks

Your current streak counts consecutive days with at least one logged practice session. Miss a day and the streak resets to zero. Your longest streak is saved as a personal record.

The sidebar shows both your current streak (with a fire icon) and your personal best.

Circle Statistics

The practice panel displays aggregated stats for the whole circle:

• Total sessions — All logged practices across members.
• Active practitioners — Members who have logged at least one session.
• Total minutes — Combined practice time.
• Average mood improvement — Mean difference between mood-after and mood-before across all sessions.
• Practice type breakdown — A bar showing how sessions split across practice types.

Private sessions are excluded from circle statistics.

7. Journeys

Journeys are structured programs available in Journey circles. A journey has a fixed start date, end date, and daily content that unlocks one day at a time.

How Days Work

• Day 1 unlocks on the journey's start date.
• Day 2 unlocks the next calendar day, and so on.
• Locked days (future) are shown with a lock icon. You cannot complete them early.
• Past days remain available — you can catch up on any day you missed.

Journey Timeline

The main area of a journey circle shows a vertical timeline of recent days. Each day card displays:

• Day number and title
• Description and reflection prompt (if the creator set one)
• Suggested practice type and duration (if applicable)
• Your reflection (if you have completed the day)
• A status marker: completed (checkmark), current (highlighted), or locked (lock icon)

Completing a Day

Open the journey panel in the sidebar. The current day is highlighted. Click Mark Complete and optionally write a reflection. Your reflection is saved with the day and visible on the timeline.

You can also go back and complete earlier days you may have skipped.

Progress Tracking

The sidebar journey panel shows:

• Progress bar — How many days you have completed out of the total, with a percentage.
• Day grid — A compact 7-column heatmap of all journey days. Colors indicate:
  • Green: completed
  • Amber outline: current day
  • Gray: locked (future)
  • Dashed gray: available but not yet completed
• Cohort stats — How many participants are active and the group's average completion percentage.
• Leaderboard — The top five members ranked by days completed.

Enrollment Limits

Some journeys have a maximum number of participants. If the journey is full, new members who join the circle will see a notice and cannot participate until a spot opens.

8. Creating a Circle

Click Create a Circle from the browse page (you must be logged in).

Step-by-step

1. Choose a type — Click Community, Practice, or Journey. This cannot be changed later.
2. Name your circle — Keep it clear and descriptive (max 100 characters).
3. Add a description (optional) — Explain what the circle is about (max 2,000 characters).
4. Upload a cover image (optional) — JPEG, PNG, or WebP, up to 5 MB. This appears on your circle's card and header.
5. Set community guidelines (optional) — Write rules or expectations for members.
6. Choose a privacy level — Public, Private, or Secret.
7. Click Create Circle.

You are automatically the circle's owner with full admin privileges.

After creation

• For Practice circles, the practice panel is ready immediately. Members can start logging sessions as soon as they join.
• For Journey circles, you need to set up the journey content using the Journey Editor (see Managing Your Circle below).

9. Managing Your Circle

Circle owners and admins have access to management tools on the circle's detail page.

Editing Circle Settings

Click the edit icon on the circle header to change the name, description, cover image, guidelines, or privacy level.

Member Roles

Managing Members

Click View All Members to open the full member list. As an owner or admin, you can:

• Change a member's role — Promote to moderator or admin, or demote.
• Ban a member — Removes them from the circle and prevents re-joining.

Journey Editor (Journey circles)

The journey editor panel appears in the sidebar for admins. To set up a journey:

1. Enter a title and description for the journey.
2. Set the start date and end date. The number of days is calculated automatically.
3. Optionally set a max participants limit.
4. Click Auto-generate days to create placeholder cards for each day.
5. Expand each day card and fill in:
   • Title — A name for the day (e.g., "Breath Awareness").
   • Description — What the day is about.
   • Prompt — A reflection question or action item for members.
   • Practice type — Suggested practice (meditation, yoga, etc.).
   • Duration — Suggested practice length in minutes.
6. Click Save Journey.

You can edit the journey structure at any time. Creating a new journey for the same circle automatically deactivates the previous one.

10. Rituals (Automated Prompts)

Rituals are scheduled prompts that automatically create posts in your circle on a recurring basis. They are managed by circle admins.

What is a Ritual?

A ritual is a recurring post — for example, a "Morning Check-in" that appears every day at 8 AM asking members how they feel. Rituals keep your circle active and give members a regular prompt to engage.

Setting Up a Ritual

1. Open the Rituals panel in the sidebar (admin only).
2. Click Add Ritual.
3. Choose from the template library — pre-built rituals for common use cases — or create a custom one.
4. Configure the schedule:
   • Recurrence — Daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
   • Day of week — For weekly/biweekly rituals.
   • Time — When the ritual fires each day.
   • Timezone — The timezone for scheduling.
5. Customize the prompt text. You can use variables:
   • {{circle_name}} — Inserts the circle's name.
   • {{date}} — Today's date.
   • {{day_name}} — Day of the week (e.g., "Monday").
   • {{month_name}} — Current month name.
   • {{ritual_name}} — The ritual's own name.
6. Save the ritual.

Managing Rituals

• Pause / Resume — Toggle a ritual on or off without deleting it.
• Trigger Now — Manually fire a ritual immediately to create a post right away.
• Delete — Remove the ritual permanently.

11. FAQ & Troubleshooting

Q: Can I change my circle's type after creation?
No. The circle type (Community, Practice, or Journey) is set at creation and cannot be changed. Create a new circle if you need a different type.

Q: I cannot find a circle I was told about.
It may be a secret circle. Secret circles do not appear in browse or search results. Ask the circle owner for a direct link or invitation.

Q: I left a circle by mistake. Can I rejoin?
Yes — visit the circle's page and click Join again. Your previous posts are still there. If it was a secret circle, you will need a new invitation.

Q: Why can't I post an Announcement?
Announcements are restricted to circle admins and moderators. If you need to make an announcement, ask a circle admin.

Q: My practice streak reset. Why?
Streaks count consecutive calendar days with at least one logged session. If you miss an entire day (midnight to midnight in your timezone), the streak resets.

Q: Can I complete future journey days early?
No. Journey days unlock based on the calendar date. You can catch up on past days, but future days remain locked until their date arrives.

Q: The journey is full. What can I do?
Wait for a spot to open, or ask the circle owner to increase the participant limit. If the journey is a recurring program, a new circle may be created for the next cohort.

Q: How do I transfer circle ownership?
Ownership transfer is not yet available as a self-service feature. Contact support for assistance.

Q: Are my private practice logs truly private?
Yes. Logs marked Private are visible only to you. They are excluded from circle statistics and the practice feed. Other members cannot see them.