INPUT ARTICLE: Article: It can be easy to appreciate your strengths your sense of humor, or generosity, or analytical skills, for example. And it is also easy to get down on yourself for having various personality traits you perceive as weaknesses maybe you are quick to anger or always running late, for example. Instead of getting down on yourself for your weaknesses try instead to reframe them as something positive as traits that make you uniquely you. Make a list of all your strengths. Include the big ones that are huge components of your personality, like your patience, all the way down to the small things you are good at, like juggling or making amazing oatmeal cookies. Read the list and see how many great qualities you contribute to the world! Now make a list of all your weaknesses. Write down things you don't like about your personality or you feel are negative traits. Look at your list of weaknesses. Think about ways you could see those weaknesses as positives. For example, say one of your weaknesses is that you think you talk too much. You could reframe this to a positive as, "It's easy for me to express my opinion." "I'm too sensitive" could be reframed as, "I have empathy for others." . To appreciate and accept yourself, it is important to know who you are. It may be helpful to identify your personal values. Knowing what is important to you and making decisions based on your personal values helps you be authentic and appreciate your true self. Make sure your values are your own and you are not simply taking on the values of your friends or family. Figure out what is important to you. Explore which values are important to you and write them down. A concrete list of your values may help you recognize when you are being inauthentic to yourself and your values. You may feel like other people may not like you if they see the "real" you. It may be helpful for you to explore these feelings with a therapist or by writing in a journal. Determine when you feel most yourself and when you feel the need to pretend to be someone else, and explore the differences between those situations. For example, if you feel you cannot be yourself around certain friends or family, perhaps because you fear being made fun of, then it it may be a sign that you fear rejection about revealing your true self. The first step to changing your behavior is noticing when you do it. Pay attention and later, spend some time reflecting on what triggered your behavior in a particular situation. It may take a while for you to feel comfortable enough to be your authentic self around other people. Don't be too hard on yourself if you can't do it right away. . Comparing yourself to others can leave you feeling discouraged and judgmental. Remember, you generally see only a piece of others' everyday lives (particularly on social media). Comparing yourself to someone else's "highlight reel" will only set you up for disappointment and feeling bad about yourself. Measure your growth by comparing yourself to who you were in the past instead. For example, think about your life 10 years ago. Has it changed? Have you acquired new skills, new relationships, or left dysfunctional life patterns behind? If you feel you have stagnated, take some steps to make some positive changes in your life. You can also look at your life now and imagine what you would like it to look like five or 10 years in the future. If you dream of getting a promotion at work in a few years, for example, what can you do today to start making progress towards your goals. Working toward a goal can help you to feel more self-worth and in control of your life. . If you are not feeling great about yourself, pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone may sound like the last thing you want to do. But taking a risk whether it's trying a new activity, asking someone on a date, or trying a new recipe for dinner can help you learn more about what you are capable of achieving. Tap into the skills, knowledge, and tenacity you may not have even known was there most of the time, when faced with a challenge, we can rise to the occasion to tackle it. Seeing what you're capable of can help you appreciate yourself more and gain a new perspective of yourself. Being challenged and seeing how you can overcome those challenges can help you build a greater appreciation for yourself. You may be worried that if things do not go as planned, this will cause you to feel worse about yourself. But it actually presents another opportunity for you to step up trying again after a failure shows great character and is something you can really appreciate about yourself.

SUMMARY: Appreciate your strengths (and your weaknesses). Stay true to yourself Avoid comparisons Take risks

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Grease the inside of two 9-inch (22.86 -centimeter) round baking pans. Dust the inside of each pan with flour, then tap out the excess flour. Make sure that the baking rack is in the center of the oven. Place the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk them together until everything is evenly mixed. This ensures that everything gets distributed evenly throughout the wet ingredients. Make sure that you are using unsweetened cocoa powder and not Dutch process. Add in the eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar into the mixing bowl. Beat everything together on a medium-low speed setting for 1 minute, or until everything is blended together. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then blend on a high speed setting for 2 more minutes. You can use an electric mixer, handheld beater, or a food processor fitted with whisks. Be sure to distribute the batter evenly between both pans. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl clean so that you don't waste any of the batter. They are ready when a toothpick poked in the center comes out with a few crumbs. If your oven is small, you will need to bake the cakes on two racks. Halfway through the baking, switch the racks that the cakes are on: move the top rack cake to the bottom rack, and the bottom rack cake to the top. Once the cakes are baked, place the pans on a wire cooling rack. Let them cool for 10 minutes, then remove them from the pans. Let them finish cooling the rest of the way. It may help to run a knife around the inside edges of the pan first, before removing the cakes.

SUMMARY:
Preheat your oven to 350F (177C) and prep your pans. Mix together the dry ingredients. Beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into the two cake pans. Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool before removing them from the pans.