How to join teacher office hours with Svayam Yoga
Find an open office-hours slot with a teacher and take a place in it.
When this is useful
When a written answer will not do it - you need someone to watch a movement or talk something through - but a full class is more than the question warrants.
Before you start
- The question, narrowed down. Office hours are short, and a specific question gets a specific answer.
- Your timezone set correctly, since slots are shown in it.
Steps
Step 1
Open Office Hours
Office Hours sits under Ask in the sidebar and opens a page headed Office Hours. If no teacher has opened a slot yet, the page says so plainly rather than showing an empty grid.
Step 2
Read the week by day
Slots are grouped under the day they run on, so you can find your Tuesday evening without reading the whole list.
Step 3
Pick a teacher
Each slot names the teacher, the styles they teach and their average rating where they have one. Choosing by style is usually a better guide than choosing by time alone.
Step 4
Check the spots
Every slot shows how many places are taken out of the maximum. A full slot cannot be joined - you will have to take another one.
Step 5
Join the slot
Join takes your place and the count goes up by one. The button then reads Leave, which is how you know it worked.
Step 6
Leave if your plans change
Leave gives the place back. Doing that early is worth more than it sounds, because someone else is waiting on a full slot.
What happens next
Your place is held until you leave it. Teachers open office hours themselves, so what is available changes week to week - a slot that suits you is worth taking when you see it.
An example
Your knee keeps drifting inward in a standing pose and two written answers have not fixed it. You find a Thursday slot with a teacher who lists the style you practise, join it, and show them the movement. The correction turns out to be in your foot.
Tips
- Bring one question, not five. Office hours are shorter than a class.
- If the slot list is empty, ask your question in Community Q&A instead and check back.
- Leave a slot you cannot make. It costs you nothing and frees a place.
Safety and limitations
- Teachers give yoga guidance, not medical advice, and office hours are not an assessment or a diagnosis.
- Anything that started with an injury belongs with a clinician first. Bring their advice back to the teacher afterwards.
- For a problem that needs watching over several sessions rather than answering once, a live class or a course with a teacher is the better use of your time.
Svayam supports a general wellbeing practice. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it is not a substitute for medical advice, physiotherapy, or an in-person assessment by a qualified yoga teacher.
Related how-to guides
How to ask a yoga teacher a question with Svayam Yoga
Write a question, send it to a teacher of your choice, and find their answer when it arrives.
How to follow the Community Q&A feed with Svayam Yoga
Read the community feed, mark the answers that helped, and follow your own questions from asked to answered.
How to book a live yoga class with Svayam Yoga
Find a live class, check when it runs in your own timezone, and book a place in it.