Not so long ago, Pilates was something you’d stumble upon in a small, specialized studio or as a side offering in a yoga space. Fast forward to today, and it’s everywhere and shows no signs of slowing down. Pilates teacher and teacher trainer Carolina Sambado shares some insights into why Pilates has overtaken yoga in popularity in the last years.

Did you know that if you’re employed in Germany (except in Bavaria and Saxony), you have the right to take 5 extra paid holidays per year for certain educational activities? If you didn’t, you’re not alone. General awareness of their existence tends to be rather low with only 1-2% of employees in Germany using the opportunity. Malte from b23 shares how he began offering Bildungsurlaub with Nikola Küsters, plus lessons and advice for facilitators interested in following this path.

We’re very excited to announce the latest addition to Soul Collective’s repertoire: retreat venues. We’ve added a new section to our website where you can explore a range of beautiful spaces in unique locations across Europe, each one perfect for hosting your dream retreat.

Natalie from Soul Collective shares a summary of her days at Residence Retreat in Cape Town, reflecting on what it's like to attend a retreat that's focused on cooking rather than yoga or meditation.

Let’s make the best out of the cozy weather days still ahead of us by curling up with a good book. This week, we asked wellness facilitators across different modalities to share the books that have been inspiring them lately.

In honor of International Women’s Day, we called on women duos we admire in Berlin to share about their connection and the advice they’d pass on. Featuring friends, co-founders, collaborators, and even family, this newsletter offers a boost of inspiration — and we’ve also shared a bit about our own dynamic.

Yes, we’ll admit it, we’re two of the many Berliners who flocked to Mexico City this winter. We spent most of February working remotely there and squeezing in as much time as we possibly could to explore all that this rich, vibrant city has to offer. It felt like we barely scratched the surface, but we pulled together a list of some of our favorite places from our visit to share with you.

Community-builder, experiential creative director & facilitator, Tina Ateljevic shares with us her insider tips for Copenhagen, including her favorite wellness studios, wholesome cafes, saunas, and unique spaces from people who have become friends.

To kick off Lunar New Year today, Yun Shu shares some insights into the architecture of the Fire Horse year and how understanding your birth chart is the best way to navigate the heat it will bring

Raised within the Vietnamese diaspora in Germany, Berlin-based TCM practitioner Jenny Trinh shares with us her perspective on Lunar New Year and the deeper context around the upcoming Fire Horse year.

An insider view into Guatemala with tips and recommendations for Antigua, San Marcos La Laguna, and El Remate.

The German Pension Insurance (DRV) is changing its rules from 01.01.2027, to decide whether teachers are allowed to work as self-employed freelancers or must be hired as employees by their studios. This particularly affects yoga teachers, sports and fitness trainers, Pilates trainers, dance teachers and music teachers, i.e. professions that are traditionally practiced as freelance, self-employed teaching activities. Our guest author, Yasemin Ege Vollmond, shares with us how wellness studios and teachers can prepare now.

We’re back from our hiatus and with our first newsletter of the year, and we called on some special individuals from our Soul Collective community to share some of their “out with the old, in with the new” insights and intentions for this year. Since we’re still in the Chinese year of the Snake (although it seems like everyone on the internet is continually referencing the year of the Fire Horse — we’re not there yet!!) it feels appropriate to talk about what we’re shedding and letting go of from this past year, and what we’re calling in for 2026.

The Winter Solstice is approaching, and with it an annual threshold opens: the Rauhnächte, as they are known in German-speaking regions - a pagan ritual passage between years. To learn more about the Rauhnächte, we invited cultural researcher, multi-disciplinary artist and educator, Alisa Reimer, to share the meaning of this tradition for pre-Christian peoples and how to continue honoring this as a time for stillness and reflection today.

It’s been over five years since allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against Yogi Bhajan, the founder of Western Kundalini Yoga, came to light. Since then, the discourse around the allegations has slowly died down yet Kundalini is still practiced in studios across Berlin. In this article, we take a closer look at how Kundalini teachers in Berlin are re-imagining the practice.

We've created this Soul Collective gift guide to inspire you to find the perfect gift for your friends, family, loved ones, or simply, just for you. Our guide features products, experiences, and brands we love and support. 

Last week, we visited friends and collaborators in Berlin’s rival city, Munich. We know that Munich isn’t exactly “cool” in the eyes of Berliners, so we wanted to share the studios, community-builders, experience curators and places that inspire us there in the hope of giving you a new perspective on a city you thought you knew.

Christian Huder shares the key lessons he learned as a festival founder: about building something meaningful in a competitive city like Berlin, the challenge of explaining a sober and conscious festival culture, the importance of team relationships, the danger of burning out from passion and a shift toward a non-profit, holacratic and decentral structure became both an act of purpose and a journey of organisational development.

In Berlin’s yoga, Pilates and fitness scene, one thing has become increasingly clear: third-party platforms are running the show. What began as a helpful way to explore different studios throughout the city has evolved into something much larger, bordering on a monopoly. Studios that got in early and made contracts before third-party platforms were as ubiquitous, are the ones reaping the benefits, while newer studios struggle to keep up.

Tash English from Avant Garden, Berlin’s favorite herbalist, shares with us about Samhain - a sacred time of celebration marking the turning point between the lightest months and the darkest days. It is a time of endings and beginnings, of descent and renewal, time for the final harvest, when the wheel of the year completes its cycle and will start to turn again.