It's astonishing: the moment you become aware that your propensity to over-give is in fact a defense mechanism. You give and give and give in a bid to avoid the difficult task of actively requiring that others treat you right. 

Over-giving is your way of taking control of what you believe is inevitable: that others will never treat you right because they don't love you. If you just give too much, that affords you room to say, "I'm always the giver and everybody takes from me." 

"Everybody takes" not because they have shortcomings; rather, "because I'm always the giver." Because you're too good, everyone else falls short. That's what this is really about. That's the narrative your mind came up with to protect you.

In reality, if you were to simply take a step back and allow others the space to also give to you, then you would have to look them square in the face and come to terms with whether or not they actually want to give; whether or not they're actually worth your time; and, whether or not they actually love you at all. That's what this is really about.

Giving has no value at all unless it balances itself with receiving. The combination of giving, pushing and hiding has no value to bring.

Remember to also be a receiver and never forget to be humble enough to look people straight in the face and ask the big questions: do they actually love me, do they even want to give to me, are they treating me right? This makes all the difference.

It is unfortunate that people so seldomly come to the realisation that it takes humbleness to be a receiver. It takes humbleness applied to multiple angles in order to be a receiver.

Because it takes humbleness to be vulnerable, to be truthful with oneself, and to consciously place oneself in the position of willingness to wait for another to move.