Why do you know exactly what you need to do to feel better, yet still struggle to actually do it? Why do we keep repeating the same patterns, even when we recognize they're no longer serving us? In Part 1 of this conversation on PCOS Unfiltered: Nourish, Heal, Thrive, I'm joined by Matan Cohen-Citron, a hypnotherapist and coach who helps people bridge the gap between knowing and doing by exploring the unconscious beliefs and patterns that may be keeping them stuck. Together, we explore the fascinating connection between the conscious and unconscious mind, why changing our behavior isn't always as simple as making a decision, and how the beliefs we've carried since childhood can influence the choices we make today. Matan explains why our brains tend to favor what's familiar, even when those familiar patterns don't necessarily make us happy. We discuss how our experiences, families, culture, and even the media can shape our beliefs about health, relationships, success, and what we're capable of achieving. We also explore an important distinction: Breaking an old pattern is only part of the process. We also have to create a new one. From limiting beliefs and the stories we tell ourselves to building small habits that gradually become part of our identity, this conversation offers a different perspective on why lasting change can feel so difficult. For women navigating PCOS/PMOS, struggling to maintain healthy habits, or feeling frustrated by the cycle of starting over, this episode invites you to consider what might be happening beneath the surface. Because what if the reason you're struggling to change isn't that you don't know enough or aren't trying hard enough? What if lasting change begins with understanding the beliefs and patterns that have been guiding your behavior all along?
Listening is a great place to start, but lasting change happens when you begin putting these ideas into practice.
Join us inside the Healthy Ever After app, where you'll find:
✨ A supportive community of women on the same journey
🎙️ Every episode of PCOS Unfiltered
🥗 Healthy recipes and meal ideas
📝 Weekly challenges and Body Wisdom practices
🎁 Free guides and exclusive resources
📅 Live trainings, Q&As, and special events
Download the Healthy Ever After app today and join us!
This week, I want you to get curious about ONE pattern you keep repeating, even though you know it's not helping you become the person you want to be.
Maybe it's:
❤️ Putting everyone else's needs ahead of your own
❤️ Telling yourself you'll start taking care of your health on Monday
❤️ Avoiding something because you're afraid of failing
❤️ Saying yes when you really want to say no
❤️ Believing you're just not the kind of person who can stay consistent
❤️ Falling back into familiar habits when life gets stressful
Instead of judging yourself, I want you to ask:
What belief might be keeping this pattern in place?
Then ask yourself:
Is this belief still serving the person I want to become?
Choose ONE small action this week that supports the person you want to be.
It doesn't have to be a dramatic change.
Maybe it's taking a 10-minute walk, setting a boundary, or making time for yourself.
Remember, you're not just changing a habit. You're beginning to create a new pattern.
Matan Cohen-Citron is a hypnotherapist and coach who helps people bridge the gap between knowing and doing.
With more than 25 years of experience exploring the mind-body connection, Matan's journey began with yoga and movement practices and expanded into areas including Pilates, Qigong, energy healing, hypnosis, and approaches to personal change.
Through hypnotherapy and coaching, he helps individuals explore unconscious beliefs and patterns that may be influencing their behavior and standing between them and the life they want to create.
His work includes exploring limiting beliefs, anxiety, past experiences, personal growth, and performance. He emphasizes individualized approaches that combine curiosity, compassion, and practical tools to support meaningful change.
Matan's philosophy centers on an important idea: Understanding a pattern is valuable, but creating and practicing a new way of responding is what helps move change into everyday life.
Want to learn more about Matan and his work?
🌐 Website:
http://matansmovement.com/
Please take a moment to:
❤️ Share this episode with someone who feels stuck or is ready for a fresh perspective.
⭐ Leave a review to help more women discover PCOS Unfiltered.
🎧 Subscribe so you never miss a new episode.
Remember:
Your life isn't determined by your past, your diagnosis, or your circumstances. The stories you believe shape the choices you make—and every new choice is an opportunity to create a different future.
⚠️ Podcast Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine.
(0:00) The brain doesn't care about it. Like our brain is programmed for survival. It's not a program (0:05) to make us happy.And feeling shit, if feeling shit is comfortable, that's the default mode. (0:11) Now, every time we have to make a change, this is out of our comfort zone. (0:17) Welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered, where we help you understand what your body has been trying (0:22) to tell you all along.I'm your host, Lindsay, nurse turned health coach, two-time author, (0:27) and your body wisdom guide. Have you ever wondered why you can know exactly what you (0:33) need to do to feel better yet still struggle to actually do it? Today's guests, Mitanko and Citron (0:39) helps people bridge that gap between knowing and doing. Through hypnotherapy and coaching, (0:45) he helps individuals explore unconscious beliefs and patterns that may be keeping them stuck.(0:51) So we're talking about the mind-body connection, why we repeat behaviors that no longer serve us, (0:57) and how small changes can help us create new patterns and lasting transformation. (1:02) And if you enjoy conversations like this, be sure to join me and my healthy ever after community, (1:07) where we continue exploring body wisdom, nutrition, and sustainable habits. (1:11) You'll find the link in the show notes.As a reminder, this podcast is for educational (1:16) purposes only, and is not considered medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider (1:21) before making any changes to your diet, exercise, or treatment plan. (1:25) Now go ahead, settle in wherever you are, maybe grab something to take some notes, (1:31) and let's dive in.Here's my conversation with Mitanko and Citron. (1:41) Hello, and welcome. Welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered, and welcome to Mitanko.This is (1:48) a subject that is fascinating to me, so I can't wait to dive into this. It's something that I kind (1:54) of started learning about a couple years ago now, and yeah, I just I love talking about mind-body (2:01) connection. So I just want to start by having you introduce yourself, and you know, why you do what (2:08) you do, what you do, and why you do it.All right, I love that. I love that line that I can jump from. (2:15) So my name is Mitanko and Citron.I got into the body-mind world about 26, 27 years ago. I started (2:24) practicing yoga, what led me to India to study with teachers there, and that kind of kicked that (2:31) snowball that I studied yoga, Pilates, movement, energy healing, Qigong, and I was always fascinated (2:42) with change work, what people, their different names, NLP, hypnosis, and that is pretty much (2:49) helping shift the belief in the unconscious mind to create a change in the conscious mind. I like (2:56) to call it like helping people achieve the or overcoming the gap between knowing what they have (3:03) to do and doing it.Yes, and that's the part that fascinates me because, you know, my background from (3:12) nursing and then owning a gym, and yeah, I always thought like where's, you know, where's the (3:18) breakdown? So I love that we can dive into this. So you already kind of mentioned, you know, (3:23) the subconscious or unconscious mind. Can you kind of, maybe even before we dive in more, (3:29) can you kind of just explain the difference between like our conscious mind and the unconscious? (3:36) Yeah, so we have the conscious mind, which is our operating memory, like how we process the world (3:42) at that specific time.If we have to think not how we process, how we process comes from the (3:46) unconscious mind, and most people make the assumption that they're using their conscious (3:52) mind. However, what we experience in the world is a result of our beliefs and behavior that are (3:59) stored in the unconscious mind. So people say 95, 97% of our behavior comes from our unconscious (4:06) mind.Is it true the way we're programmed to see the world is the way we program? We're identifying (4:12) this way, we speak in that way, and we're making the assumption, you know, like in the old days (4:20) when we used to have a screen and the computer, the CPU was downstairs. We're making the assumption (4:26) that we are seeing reality and we are aware and we call it conscious. However, most of it is (4:33) unconscious.Yeah, so I mean, and this can form, this can start from childhood, right? (4:40) It started in childhood and, you know, some people will say before childhood that we're (4:46) born to the world with some sort of beliefs and behaviors. Like, you know, when you remember, (4:53) if you remember little kids how they behave, they have their own personalities. (4:59) Yeah, yeah.Okay, so let's kind of get into that change behavior. So I mean, why is it, (5:07) knowing, you know, what we just talked about, that, you know, smart, capable people, I mean, (5:13) I even fall into patterns myself, but like, why do we keep repeating those patterns, even though we (5:20) know those aren't serving us in our goals or in life? Because behavior is not logical. We make (5:29) the assumption that we behave logically.So we look at the top, we're thinking that we're at the top (5:34) of the mountain and we look, we look at our behavior and we assume that our behavior is (5:39) logical. Our conscious mind works with logic. Our unconscious mind does not work with logic.And (5:46) this is the biggest mistake I think we all do, that we look at the behavior and we try to explain (5:52) it with logic. However, our behavior is not logical. And there is a, there is a gain for (6:02) every behavior, even a behavior that is not serving us, like playing it small in life, (6:09) feeling anxiety, not reaching our potential, all of these things, they have, there is an (6:18) unconscious gain.Think about weight, for example. It has gain. Back pain, it has gain.You don't (6:28) have to exercise, you don't go to the gym, you don't eat healthy. There are many gains that come (6:35) from what we call negative behaviors. Well, yeah.And for some people, I mean, I've, and again, (6:41) this was part of like, when I was first introduced to, you know, this concept, I guess you want to (6:45) say, but, but it's like a safety suit, right? It's like, we feel protected and just, you know, (6:52) that's, that's our mind saying, nope, we're good. We don't want to challenge ourselves. We're good (6:56) right here, even though it's not comfortable, but it's kind of like a safety for those people, (7:02) right? Yeah, it is comfortable.It just doesn't feel right. You know, so when, when we, we might (7:09) have situations that we feel shitty about ourselves. Okay.If, you know, if it affects our (7:15) health or relationship or whatever it is, however, feeling shitty might be comfortable. So in terms (7:22) of our brain, the brain doesn't care about it. Like our brain is programmed for survival.It's (7:29) not a program to make us happy and feeling shit. If feeling shit is comfortable, that's the default (7:35) mode. Now, every time we have to make a change, this is out of our comfort zone.And, and that (7:45) doesn't allow us to, to experience happiness, that feature that we have in our brain that (7:51) wants to keep us safe. So that's probably why, like, if you want to dive in deeper, you know, (7:58) why does knowing what to do often, it's, it's not enough to actually make that change. Yeah, (8:08) it's not enough.So I can, cause people can, we, we can get to the idea of to that place of (8:16) convincing ourselves that this is the right thing. And we can even have the emotion by (8:20) spoken, by speaking with a, with a friend or with ourself or, or watching the show that will (8:26) inspire us. However, all of these ideas that, you know, we can get to those beliefs, and this is (8:32) what happens in a session that we're changing those beliefs.That's a little bit different (8:37) than a person speaking to him, speaking to himself. We need to bring heaven to earth. (8:45) So whatever changes, if it's a changing the way we're talking to ourself, (8:55) changing the way we're in, we are in a relationship, if we pleasing, if we're not pleasing, (9:00) it's also very important to anchor, you know, it's one thing to let go of a belief.It's another thing (9:10) to anchor a behavior that is going to serve us. (9:14) They have to kind of break, break that pattern, right? I mean, (9:18) breaking that pattern is, is, is half, it's one thing. You also have to start a new pattern (9:24) because it's not that, you know, we are, we are empty.We still have a mind and we still living (9:30) in this world and we have to, to do all of these things. So that delusion that I'm just going to (9:36) be empty, like meditating, no thoughts, it hasn't happened to me yet, maybe for a few seconds here (9:43) and there. And in reality, I have, you know, I have to deal with my, with my day to day life.(9:52) Yeah. (9:53) In my day to day life, I have to think which, when I don't have this pattern, all right, (9:58) and this is kind of the classical, all the therapy point of view that people are talking about the (10:05) problem. So I don't have any specific problem as an example in mind.If you have one, I will play (10:12) with that. But when we think about, there is over focusing about the problem and what we don't want (10:22) and what we do in a hypnotherapy is anchoring that behavior that we call it a solution. Like (10:32) what will be the solution where you're not pleasing people? What are you doing with yourself? (10:38) How do you see the world? How do you see yourself? How do you feel inside? What words you hear in (10:43) your mind? And it's, it's something that is very personal.It's not something, (10:51) so for me, for example, 99% of my work is one-on-one. So I have the privilege to get people's (10:59) resources because there are a lot of suggestions out there. You know, it's like when you open your (11:03) phone or when you open a TV or anything, there are suggestions to eat in a different way, to look (11:12) in a different way.Everything is a suggestion. You see a person who is looking one in one way or (11:18) another. This is a suggestion.I want to be like him. I don't want to be like him. Like our conscious (11:23) mind is working all the time.So the question is what, which suggestions we want to put in our own (11:31) mind, not a general suggestion like eat more kale or more greens. It sounds good, but it's not (11:39) personal. I always use the classic example of a woman, like maybe refrigerator door open or (11:47) you know, diving into a pint of ice cream and like sobbing her eyes out.And we associate that with (11:55) a breakup a lot of the times. Right. And so it's like, and, and you think about that back to, (12:01) you know, movies and TV shows, there's been probably multiple instances of kind of that (12:06) scenario that we see.So then yeah, for years we think, okay, it's okay that if we're going (12:11) through a rough time, we can just dive into a pint of ice cream when at some point we have to (12:16) know that that's not how we should handle our feelings. Yeah. A lot of the beliefs that we have (12:24) about life, about relationship, about marriage, about health come from Hollywood, you know, (12:31) from people that we don't even know and we watch on the screen.Yeah. You know, I see my girls, (12:36) how they're attached to, you know, to TV personalities. And they think that these (12:43) people are real.They don't understand that they have a life and they, you know, they have stomach (12:49) aches and they have migraines and they have heartbreaks and they're not dealing with it (12:56) in a good way most of the time. Yeah, that's very true. Yeah.What have you learned about the (13:06) unconscious mind that most people never consider? That it has a completely different language than (13:13) the conscious mind. The conscious mind works on logic. The unconscious mind doesn't work on logic.(13:18) And it actually gives me more freedom when I get stuck in something that's bothering me (13:26) to stop pressing that logic machine and being hard on myself to try to solve it, to see that (13:33) there is something that I don't see. And that helps me to go through that cycle of suffering (13:45) that we all go through a little bit faster. Because there is the conscious mind that wants to (13:52) say I'm right in every situation.If it's a conflict in relationship, if it's a conflict of (14:00) health, a money issue, whatever it is, it wants to say a story. And that story that we're believing (14:08) in and we like to say to our friends and to our family, you know, it's like we're having that (14:15) charge that we want to release to the world, like this is right, this is wrong, all of this. (14:22) It's just a story.That's the bottom line. And if you were growing up in a different city or (14:30) a different family or a different country, you wouldn't have had the same belief (14:36) in worldview that you're having right now. (14:39) It starts with those stories we tell ourselves, right? And that just kind of spirals into our (14:45) minds.(14:47) Yeah, we tell ourselves and for, you know, not to be hard, like we get them from a very young age, (14:55) like every family, every culture, every religion has their own stories. And we are part of that (15:07) story. And we get our values from there, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it we're getting from (15:14) there.And then we're finding ourselves later in life and who put all of these programs in my mind? (15:23) And as you said before, like this is a great opportunity to start questioning these things. (15:33) It's like, dude, everybody in my family is obese. What does it mean? No, like it means that I take (15:42) that, usually I normalize that because this is what we do with the environment.We have to survive. (15:50) And in order to survive, we accept certain beliefs that I should be miserable and be in a (16:02) relationship, that I should not take care of my own body, that I should work so many hours a day, (16:09) that I should be available for the kids all the time while putting myself on the side, (16:17) that my kids should be like me, all of these endless amount of beliefs. (16:25) We call it in hypnotherapy, we call it BF or belief system that we're going within the world.(16:34) And it's not about if it's right or wrong. That's not what it's about because there is (16:40) no right or wrong way in that sense. There is a right and wrong way in terms of like, (16:48) to my opinion, in terms of harming people or not harming people, harming the planet, whatever we're (16:55) doing and the consequences that we have.However, in terms of our behavior is to believe that (17:02) exercising is good or bad or whatever. It's not about right or wrong. It's about if it's serving (17:08) us or is it not serving us to be the person that we want to be.(17:14) And that's where it starts, right? With the change, we have to actually (17:18) kind of change our identity in a way, I guess, right? Be the person instead of just (17:22) those thoughts and patterns that have been downloaded over years and years for some people. (17:31) But it's really about just being the person that does the thing. (17:36) Yes.Yeah. I think you're right on that idea that when we decide that we want to change, (17:45) all right, I'm saying when because not everybody wants to change. That growth mindset is not for (17:51) everyone and not everyone believes in that.And unfortunately, most people, they need a negative (17:58) event to happen for them in their life to choose that they're changing. However, yes, (18:07) as we said at the beginning, people usually like to change something external. And I think it's (18:15) easier to change something internal.So even when you change something external, my suggestion is (18:23) don't go all in to want to change it in a week or in two weeks. Take little steps that will not (18:30) challenge your ego, your identity or personality that much. However, in a few weeks, in a few (18:38) months, you will see that you're doing a habit, whatever the habit is, going for 30 minutes or (18:44) walk a day.And then it will become part of who you are. You're a person who walks every day for (18:52) 30 minutes. Then there is that shift in identity that I'm a person.It's not about the walking, (19:00) by the way. I'm a person who's taking care of myself for 30 minutes a day. So after taking (19:05) care of myself for 30 minutes a day, for three months, I'm like, wow, that was an amazing (19:11) experience.I feel so much better. I started knowing my neighbors and the dogs and the birds (19:17) that are outside. And I'm in community with nature, with nature.And then what comes up is like, (19:25) let's double down on that, because this is something that makes me good. So maybe once a (19:30) week I will go for an hour walk or I will go somewhere else. Or maybe after I come back from (19:35) a walk twice a week, I'm going to do three squats or do three pushups.And that's it. And then, (19:43) you know, like another seed is being planted. And what happens as a result of that, the identity (19:54) starts growing.And then you become a person, let's say, who takes care of himself through (20:01) walking, through exercise, through diet. And that's a shift in the identity. All right.(20:07) It's a shift of the identity that some people will not like this word, but I will say that (20:14) word regardless. That identity becomes an addiction to a point that if you're not exercising or (20:21) walking or taking care of yourself for two, three days, you're not going to feel comfortable inside. (20:28) And you will do whatever you have to do in order to go and exercise or move or do something that (20:36) makes you feel good.Because this is an identity. It's a new identity. (20:42) You mentioned the 90 days, because that was going to be my next question as I was thinking.(20:48) Is that, I mean, it's going to be different for everybody, right? But you know, I feel like you (20:52) hear statistics about like, oh, in three weeks you, you know, you're going to notice a change, (20:58) but 90 days is when it really sticks or whatever it might be. What's been your experience with (21:02) kind of like timelines for people? I think that's 90 days or even less. It's true for changing habits.(21:13) Okay. What I do one-on-one is very different because in my one-on-one, I work more on childhood (21:21) trauma and different kinds of trauma and anxiety, limiting beliefs, things like that. So what I do (21:29) is custom work.It's very different than habit changing. Yeah. Okay.Cause I do work that as (21:37) much as I would like people to know how to do it for themselves, most of my clients, they spend (21:44) like 20 plus years in therapy and they haven't let go of what they were letting go of. And then (21:50) they come to me in a matter of few sessions, they're letting go of that. So there is a difference (21:57) because people think hypnotherapy is one thing.Once you understand it, everything is hypnosis, (22:04) the way you talk to yourself, the way you, you, you talk to others, what you get from the, (22:11) from the environment, body language, all of it is a form of influence. Okay. So the question is how (22:18) we using it.Okay. So people can use hypnotherapy to change their own life. They can use it to (22:24) change other people to let go of trauma, anxiety, limiting belief, phobia, smoking performances.You (22:31) know, we're, you know, like we're in the summer now. So a lot of sports going out and most, (22:37) most professional athletes have a mental coach, a hypnotist, CEOs, entrepreneurs. (22:48) This is also something that I do when I help people cause I think I say the, I'll call it (22:56) performance and performance we took as a society and we're just put it on a, on professional (23:03) athletes or CEOs or entrepreneurs or people that have a lot of money to invest in that extra thing (23:10) called performance.However, being a stay-at-home dad or mom, or being on, you know, being by (23:16) yourself or anything that you do is a form of performance. You don't, if you're a college (23:22) student, it's performance. If you're a high school student, it's performance.It's like (23:27) how you, how you manage your life. This is a, this is behavior because performance is behavior. (23:34) What a fascinating conversation with Matan.I hope today's episode reminded you that knowing (23:40) what to do and actually doing it are two very different things. Sometimes change begins with (23:46) understanding the beliefs and stories we've been carrying, recognizing what no longer serves us (23:51) and making one small choice to do something differently. And remember, you don't have to (23:56) change everything overnight.Small intentional steps can help you build confidence and create (24:02) new patterns. If you'd like to continue exploring body wisdom and sustainable habits, I'd love to (24:07) welcome you into my free healthy ever after community. You'll find the link in the show (24:11) notes along with Matan's information.If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, (24:17) leave a review and share it with someone who might benefit from this conversation (24:21) because healing doesn't come from doing more. It comes from understanding better. (24:26) I'm sending you so much love and I'll see you on the next episode of PCOS Unfiltered, (24:31) nourish, heal, thrive.