The essential message of step 5 is of unconditional love expressed by being listened to by a trusting other and the powerful healing of liberation that this brings.  You can be whoever you are, express all your thoughts and feelings with absolute confidence.  This will seem more real after the step of sharing with another.  After taking the risk in the first place and the world does not cave in.  After you have been heard and not judged or rejected.  You will learn how spiritually connected this step is after the process.  You do not have to be fearful that love will be taken away.  You will not be punished for your openess or honesty.  There is no price for this process of attunment, no rental fee for the time or further instalment payments if it works and you feel free and calm and relieved.  It is not about agreement or avoidance of disturbing emotions rather its about just being there and attended to.  It is the first real connected step that is about not being rejected by others and the risk of intimacy and authenticity.  It is a step that invites one to be further committed to growth, happiness and spiritual connection and what unconditional love feels like.  This love is like no other in the sense that it expands the human soul, actualizes the potential for the full possession of life on “life terms”.  Individuals who have laboured for so long under the delusion that corrections, criticism and punishments stimulate a person to grow.  We now know that this is not the case .  When we think of conditional love we think of manipulation. obey rules, getting good grades etc.  WE learn that this is the only love we can get.  Therefore the risk of step 5 can be so big because expectations are about “that which is conditional”.  B F Skinner wrote about “operant conditioning” and the idea of appropriate regards for the  manipulation of a process.  We can assign  and allow only what we have decided they should be.  The step 5 process is the opposite of this and further dilutes our operant conditioning.  Which is about expectations and conditional love and that there are always ulterior motives.  Its about  exchange , a reciprocal bargain and not a free gift.  Or if it is a gift it comes with the listener only being up for hearing what they want to.  That is why a trusted other is so significant for step 5.  Unconditional love is liberating and frees one to be authentic and real through the process of sharing.  Operant conditioning and not sharing because of risk leaves one only further still in the course of conformity which relates to programming that means we have to hide behind a false self.THINK ABOUT IT