“Cept” is a root word meaning to take or receive.
I love words and enjoy playing with them (even though I nearly failed Linguistics in college!) Looking at them from different angles sparks my creativity and helps me understand myself. Let’s look at a set of words that all contain the root “cept” and have important implications for selfcare. We’ll start with the most obvious ones dealing with the physical body, as selfcare is very often equated to care of the physical body or care of the person via the body.
These words all have a place in the realm of yoga, which of course, is one of the main ways I help clients develop their selfcare. How many of them are familiar to you?
Exteroception – awareness of external stimuli, be it temperature or birdsong
Neuroception – ability to feel safe and/or sense threat
Proprioception – awareness of the muscles, joints, and bones and their relationship to each other and to external space
Perception – cognitive/mental sensing
Interoception – internal states and sensory processing
Pranaception – breath awareness
Not all words that include the root of “cept” are related to the body, but the following 4 words still have an important connection to selfcare, but tend not to have a positive or negative charge in and of themselves. When you look at them, what comes to mind in terms of how these words might be impacting your selfcare?
Inception – the beginning or start
Conception – the act of conceiving or creating something; the birth process
Interception – preventing or stopping something in progress
Reception – a welcome, greeting or acceptance
Exception – objection (or criticism which perhaps would take ‘exception’ into our next category)
Now I share with you a short list of “cept” words which symbolize the energies which we must guard against in our selfcare. As you consider each one, what comes to mind in terms of your own selfcare, perhaps more so on the mental/emotional than physical level:
Deception – acts of falsehood, hiding or distorting the truth
Misconception – a misunderstanding or mistaken notion
Misperception – a false or inaccurate idea or belief
Preconception – an idea or belief made without all the necessary information
Susceptibility – to be easily affected or swayed by one’s emotions or to succumb without critical thinking
Now consider the following 2 types of ‘ception’ that describe spiritual acuity. Do they have a place in your current selfcare?
Pneumaception and Brahmaception – sense of the spiritual or subtle
Numaception – knowing of the unseen
Words are just words. And yet they are incredibly powerful and can give us tremendous insight into ourselves and our entire belief system. Words are often used to manipulate and control us (think advertising and propaganda). But they can also give us insight into how we operate and areas of our lives that are closed off to our true potentials.