A message for all 2s
Expecting rejection, you don't want to offer all of yourself. You want to offer something that you think people will receive. In doing this, you not only manipulate others into loving only a small piece of yourself, but fool your own self into identifying with that small piece after doing this for so long, forgetting that you are much more than someone who simply gives and lives for others. Worse, you exaggerate this piece of yourself into something it simply is not. You aren't as selfless as you may think, and neither are you as abundant in what you assume you have to provide to others.
If you want others to love you for you, and not simply for what you have to offer them, you need to show up to the world as your FULL self. Present not only the parts of you that you think will be well received, but also the parts that you think might not. The parts that need just as much love as the few you've only been comfortable with sharing thus far.
When you do this, the people who only like you for what you do for them and not for who you actually are will fall away, while the people who genuinely love you for you will stay. Yes, this means you're going to lose some relationships. You might even find that you've only surrounded yourself with people who never actually loved the real you to begin with, and thus "lose" everyone you thought was originally a friend in the process. But maybe those relationships are no longer serving you, and needed to end a long time ago. After all, wouldn't it better to have one real friend than ten fake ones? Maybe you'll find someone new who you previously never would've been able to be in a relationship with had you continued to do with them what you always did with everyone else before, which was to present yourself only as the parts of you that you deemed "likeable." Someone might just like those parts of yourself you always automatically assumed were unlikeable in the past!
You aren't selfish for having needs, and we all need to be loved simply for who we are, (that is, our true and authentic selves). You need to quit binding others through the unspoken contract you force upon them that says, "If I flatter you and give to you, you'll like me back," because you not only bind other people but yourself also by doing this, as this kind of contract goes both ways. "Love" with strings attached is no love at all, and you are tied to the same strings you tie others with whenever you make your self-worth dependent on others "confirming" this false perception you have of yourself. This false perception that says you "have no needs" and are "only here to fulfill the needs of others'," because this image you've curated paradoxically (and ironically) needs others to even confirm its own validity!
You free yourself and others to love each other unconditionally when you finally cut the strings, and quit trying to "make" people like you. You don't need to "make" anyone like you because you are loveable exactly the way you are, totally and completely. You are worthy of love for simply existing. After all, there is no other you. You're the only you that will ever exist, and that makes you special and worthy of love already. When you finally understand and integrate all this, and I mean truly integrate it all (easier said than done, I know), you might be surprised with just how many people will still both stick around and want you around afterward...
Remember, the sun that shines doesn't need the grass to appreciate its rays. It shines regardless. So keep on shining, my friends 😊