When I look back on my life and ask myself what has repeatedly brought me into joy, openness and bliss, I find three qualities at the heart of it all:

Gratitude. Compassion. Love.

Not because I’m particularly good at them. I know the beautiful mess of being human. I get lost, I doubt, I struggle, I hold on. Sometimes I get hurt and sometimes I’m the one who hurts others. I know the wild waves as well as the still waters.

Yet over the years, gratitude, compassion and love have become my inner lighthouse. They don’t prevent every storm, but they remind me which direction I want to sail.

This is what inspires me to create spaces like The Cocoon, BlissPlanet and Bewusst Sein im Fokus.

Spaces where we can step out of the familiar noise of everyday life. Where we can feel ourselves again, explore, connect, be vulnerable and perhaps discover something we didn’t even know we were missing.

Whether we call it Tantra, dance, meditation, touch or something else matters little. What matters to me is the experience of being truly alive and genuinely connected.

I believe that connection begins with ourselves — with the willingness to embrace our own humanity, including all its imperfections. And from there, something beautiful can unfold in our encounters with others, with nature and with life itself.

For me, bliss is not about always being happy. It’s about finding my way home, again and again and again.

I’ve always had a thing for making things feel right. Websites, brands, words, colors — it’s not just about how it looks. It’s about how it lands. I can spend hours tweaking a button or rewriting one line of text… not because I’m a perfectionist, but because I care. A lot.

I build websites and brands — not the flashy, empty kind, but the kind that feels like you, tells your story and actually works. I like building stuff that’s real. Deep. Alive. And I love working with people who aren’t afraid to be all that, too.

I work best when there’s trust, a bit of chaos and snacks. I tend to fall for things that are a bit weird, a bit wild and way too honest. Same goes for people.

Bernhard Weiss is a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and sound artist who has been electrifying stages from Vienna to Tokyo for more than 20 years. Trained by master drummers in West Africa and Cuba, he brings together raw traditional rhythms and modern ecstatic soundscapes.

At The Cocoon, he shapes the sonic identity of the retreat — from immersive sound concepts and live percussion to the moments that carry us onto the dance floor. Intensity, depth, emotionality and transformation are at the heart of his work.