Have you ever noticed how quickly your mind reacts when something happens?

A comment from your partner, a mistake at work, a look from a stranger — and suddenly, a thought flashes through you: “I’m not good enough.” or “They don’t respect me.”

These thoughts come so fast that we rarely stop to question them. Yet they shape how we feel, how we react, and even how we see ourselves.

Psychologists call them automatic thoughts. They are brief, rapid sentences your mind throws at you — usually without your awareness.

And here’s the important part: most of the time, these thoughts are not the truth. They are distorted reflections of old wounds and childhood beliefs that got recorded in your system.

What Are Automatic Thoughts?

• Quick, habitual thoughts that appear in response to daily situations.
• Often negative or self-critical (“I’ll never get this right,” “They’ll abandon me,” “I’m not lovable”).
• Rooted in core beliefs formed in childhood or past traumas.

Over time, these thoughts become so familiar that they feel like reality.

Where Do They Come From?

Most of these thoughts are tied to childhood experiences:

• A teacher shaming you in front of the class.
• A parent constantly criticizing you.
• Feeling unseen or neglected.

For example:

• If you were told “You’re too much,” you might now think, “Better stay quiet so people like me.”
• If you were often compared to siblings, the thought may arise, “I’ll never be enough.”

These small but repeated experiences become the lens through which you see the world.

Why They Matter

Automatic thoughts are not harmless. They influence:

• Emotions: Anxiety, shame, anger, sadness.
• Behaviors: Avoiding intimacy, overworking, people-pleasing, or giving up too soon.
• Relationships: Reacting to partners or friends based on wounds rather than truth.

When you believe your automatic thoughts, you live inside an invisible story — not in reality.

How to Work With Them

1. Notice them.

   Catch the sentences that repeat: “I can’t…,” “I’ll never…,” “They always…”

2. Question them.

   Ask: Is this 100% true? Where did this belief begin?

3. Pendulate with resources.

   Satya often teaches: go into the wound, but don’t drown there. Touch the pain — then come back to something that nourishes you: music, nature, movement, safe people.

4. Create space.

   Each time you observe instead of reacting, you expand your capacity to hold more life.

Why This Work Matters

The more you recognize and transform automatic thoughts, the freer you become. You’re no longer living through the filter of old stories. You start to live as who you are today — not as the child who was hurt.

And this is the real power: by working with automatic thoughts, you don’t just heal the past. You expand your future.