Body Image and Self-Awareness among Young Women Coursework

Body Image and Self-Awareness among Young Women - Coursework Example I plan to do this through using several somatic modalities, which include breath, movement, posture, and guided imagery. The motivation to participate in these workshops is to participate in a fashion show. Project MY WAY provides women with an opportunity to use all the resources they gained through being educated on somatic modalities. The participants will work towards a healthy self-image through education about nutrition, yoga, authentic movement, breath work, and being able to be apart of a creative vision. Finding out more about their strengths through their creations will provide them with proof of their potential. Doesn't everybody have an issue with his or her body Why is it that people are more likely to criticize their bodies versus compliment Why is our society so obsessed with the body yet at the same time so disconnected Although these questions may be perceived by many as rhetoric or absolutely abstract, they are as vital and up to date as one may think. The existing scholarly research from a range of disciplines convincingly demonstrates the issues raised in each of the queries directly relate to the most precious and essential asset of human being - health. Therefore, the recent explosion of public and scholarly attention toward the problems of self-esteem, body-image, and prevention and treatment of eating disorders is absolutely logical and unsurprising. The upward trend in eating disorders among teenagers, adolescents and adults in the US and other countries across the globe forced the researchers reconsider many traditional notions associated with etiology and treatment of disordered eating. Thus, statistics shows that during the 1970s - 1990s " the majority of individuals with eating disorders have been young, female, white, and from middle to upper-class families in Western countries and Japan. Girls with anorexia have traditionally been academically successful, first or second-born children and often work as dancers or athletes" (Halmi, 1997: 507). The traditional assumption that that indigence is the source of numerous eating disorders in girls from comfortably situated middle-class families seems poorly unjustified. Instead, the concepts of self-esteem and body-image emerged as the predominant factors associated with eating disorders in the related research. Self-esteem refers to an individual's mental perception of their personal qualities; it is one of the most frequently mentioned concepts in the psychological literature (James, 1890, cited in Rodewalt & Tragakis, 2003). The contention that low self-esteem is a distinct characteristic pertaining to eating disorders, including anorexia, has been confirmed by many credible studies. Schupak-Neuberg (1993), Rosen and Button (1993) employ various strategies and questionnaires to show that low self-esteem occurs very commonly in patients with eating disorders. Silverstone (1992) believes the evidence for this relationship is sufficient to consider low self-esteem a necessary prerequisite for disordered eating. The core features of low self-esteem - insecurity, excessive concern over weight, negative mood, feelings of inadequacy, negative