This is a good question = is anybody else hiding parts of themselves from others?
The way I think about this, you really need to strive to really like yourself. As Davit put it, "warts and all". This is not easy. There may be times where we feel we like ourselves and other times where we don't, especially when we are working on ourselves such as doing CBT or something else that works with our deeper selves, or beliefs, our habits and our traumas from the past. It can be hard to love yourself 100% of the time in my view but I believe it is possible and it takes work. Because you have to know yourself in order to love yourself. You have to love your self, so if you don't know who this 'self' is, seems hard to love something you don't define or know or can think about / describe.
The second part is about what we share with others. Over the last few years I have really thought more directly about how it is a choice. When I meet someone new, I choose what to share with them about myself. Not sharing everything doesn't mean I don't like that part of myself, it means it is private, for now, in regards to that specific person. I really don't care to share myself with just anybody and everybody. I mean, I'll share my basic kindness and will behave in pro-social ways in social settings (such as a tai chi class) but I can still count on one hand how many people know details about my past.
Personally, I don't like the way a lot of people respond to me when I tell them things about myself. Honestly a lot of people are just interested in themselves, they don't really care about the details about my life so I do feel it is pointless to offer the info, if they are just going to respond with negativity or judgement. Its too bad for them, but its fine by me, it doesn't affect what I think about myself, because its just their opinion or rather, I would say, their projection.
