Ever hear of an “Aztec Hole”? Probably not – I coined that term myself. Feel free to go ahead and spread it around! I will no doubt, amuse everyone with how my brain thinks.
The Aztec Hole phenomenon is when your brain hears the right message at the right time, allowing it in, even if it has heard the same information before. It was named as such because of the difficult or resistant nature of the brain to allow a new thought in (you’ll soon understand the similarity with the ancient Aztec ball game).
Aztec Holes are really “a-ha!” moments, pleasant discoveries.
Table of Contents
- Where the term “Aztec Hole” comes from?
- The connection with your brain
- Life examples
- Can we harness the power of an Aztec Hole?
- When wrong information gets into your Aztec Hole
Where the term “Aztec Hole” comes from?
My inspiration for the term comes from a very difficult ancient athletic sport. Here is a description:
Mesoamerican Aztecs played a game involving a ball and hoops installed in the walls. However, it was the furthest thing possible from basketball. It was also MesoAmerican and not specifically Aztec. The Aztec name for the game was ullamaliztli. The tlachtli was the ball court.
For one thing, the ball would have been impossible to dribble. It was a hard rubber ball. It was also played by striking it with hips, elbows or knees. No hands.
The Maya version called Ullama is being played again,
-Credit: Fran Jaime Rivera, Quora
The consequences of losing
Most people who know the history of this game, know that to lose meant death. This article “The Brutal and Bloody History of the Mesoamerican Ball Game” contains great pictures of the ball court and statues, but no so many details about the losers. The blogger Brownie Locks spares no details.
“The game was played by trying to put a solid rubber ball through a stone ring placed high at one end of the court. Unlike today, they had no rules. It was brutal. You could kick, hit, gouge, pull hair, trip, and anything else you can think of to your opponents. A score of one point won the game.“
The defeated team’s captain had his head chopped up and the losing team was sacrificed. Specific details of the game have been lost, and accounts of it may vary. Placing the ball through the ring was a rare event– ..Wikipedia
The connection with your brain
I hope you can make the connection here. It’s hard to get the RIGHT information to get into your brain. Specifically, when you’ve heard something a dozen times, but the right person, saying it the right way, makes it into your “Aztec Hole”.
Yep, I really felt that the whole phenomenon needed an explanation. Don’t you feel better? I do.
Aztec Hole: hearing the right message at the right time that speaks to your brain and your needs.
–ReneesRabbitHole.com
Life examples
I have a perfect example in my own life. I’ve been trying to lose weight for years. I have never been a junk food eater, but my older metabolism sure has slowed things down. Eating right and grasping techniques such as intermittment fasting is not the road block.
Then I watched this video where a man said he ate one meal a day (which I never thought I could do). He packed the meal with all the healthy approved foods, eating until he was full (olive oil, meat, vegetables, no carbs, etc.). He lost 40 pounds in 4 months. Numbers always get attention – I was in.
I was just recovering from the flu, so had a head start on the fasting (lol!). I decided to give it a try. Even with cheat weekends, 6 weeks later I’m down 17 pounds! OK, the top five was probably water weight, but I’m pretty darn excited. That brings me to a weight I haven’t been to in 8 years!
One more example with routines. I suck at them, by the way – usaully over-complicating them. As I get older, I realize that I need to do a better job with my haphazard skin care routine routine. I’ve recently been enjoying the wisdom of skin care specialist Dr. Anil Rajani. Although he charges thousands of dollars in his practice, he gives holistic and practical advice within anyone’s budget.
The Aztec Hole moment? He said to just wash your face with water in the morning, I didn’t have to use any special product. My fragile little brain rejoiced! For those with ADD tendancies, keeping it simple is always the guiding light to success. It made all the difference between me not taking action, and then becoming a daily “washer”.
DISCLAIMER: What worked for my Aztec Hole won’t necessarily make it’s way into your Aztec Hole!
This information was always before me. Why could I not heed it? I’m still waiting for my husband to experience his own Aztec Hole – hearing the right message at the right time that speaks to him for his weight loss journey.
Aztec Hole thoughts are the ones that “make it to the front of the line” in your brain.
–ReneesRabbitHole.com
I often have an Aztec Hole moment when I’m cleaning something or doing something around my house. My mind thinks, “Now why have I never thought of that before?”. Aztec Hole moment.
I’m sure you can come up with examples in your own life. For lack of a better term, I’m going to call them “lightbulb moments” – but no quite. It’s not exactly a brand new thought. Let’s just say, it’s new to you (I think deep down inside, you knew you always knew it). Either way, these are truly happy discoveries. These Aztec Hole thoughts are the ones that “make it to the front of the line” in your brain. You will now pay attention.
Can we harness the power of an Aztec Hole?
I love how you think, hacking the ‘ol brain! Sorry to tell you, I really don’t know if there is a way to intentially get those brilliant thoughts to enter other people’s Aztec Holes.
One way to open up more moments is exposing yourself to multiple points of view. This increases your chances of kicking something in to the AH. For example, I had listened to various youtube topics on content creation, but one creator struck a chord with me. I found myself aligning with her delivery, more than anyone else’s. The way in which she explained things resonated with me.
I’m sure there are hundreds of content creators talking about the same subject, but she left me with more thoughts than the others.
It seems for me, these elusive Aztec Hole moments come when I am doing some brainless task, and then the thought is somehow related to that task. Maybe the trick is do more mindless tasks? Relaxation seems to help let more Aztec Holes thoughts in, too.
Aztec Holes are really “a-ha!” moments, pleasant discoveries. It’s something that really can’t be forced. Consider them a surprise gift from your unique brain when you least expect it!
The American expression of “striking a chord” was first used in the metaphorical use in 1803 from “The Gossip,” in Boston Weekly Magazine. It means to create an emotional response, to cause you to remember something is related to you in some way, trigger a memory, or create feelings or thoughts in a person. The expression is a close cousin to the Aztec Hole.
When wrong information gets into your Aztec Hole
It happens, unfortunately. Take for example, setting up a Youtube channel and following the flood of advice from “gurus”. If you’re a perfectionist, you really have problems. You take the information to heart and apply it. Have you found yourself slowly sliding down the rabbit hole, getting sidetracked in a detail, instead of what is really important, the content?
Another case in point, I went to the dentist. I diligently had used a new cleaning product (Vanman’s – Miracle Tooth Cleaning Powder Toothpaste) I was quite pleased with the results, even improving my rates of flossing my teeth. “The dentist will certainly notice,” I thought to myself. They did not.
The non-reaction made it into my Aztec Hole and my successful routine dropped off. My brain heard, “it wasn’t worth trying”. I have noticed that the dental employees have dropped the shaming. That for sure didn’t help things.
The only way out of this is perspective – and experience. I can look back now and see what wasted my time. I appreciate a Youtuber who said that she was giving up Instagram. She finally realized that her hard push was not paying off on the platform. Instead it was wasting her time when she could have focused her energy on things that would have moved the needle forward.
Stay alert and watch out for the pitfalls! Leave room to enjoy the gems that do get through!
