Its kind of common knowledge amongst this community that men and women are different in many ways, men can be emotional but its seen as being weak, this is not true and very ill founded. Being in touch with your emotions just re affirms that you are a human being.
But compared to us women are much more emotional, going off warm feeling rather than cold logic. They search for the perfect relationship that offers emotion and passion. The best is balance of negative and positive emotions, an up and down rollercoaster is better than a monotanous spinning wheel.

I am a good balance between a romantic and a realist, warm feeling and cold logic. I love the idea of love at first sight, true love and the soul mate, but i also know its based on chemistry, biology and hormones (kills the magic huh lol)
But this doesn't stop me from being a great romantic and the kind of guy who tries not to let his emotions get the better of him...somethimes i will submit to these feelings, sometimes not.

But this is steering off what i am here to say.

I too had the problems of chatting to women. Putting one foot wrong could get you rejected like a little ***** from X-factor. Approaching by itself was such a god damn painful fear inducing occurence so talking and holding up a conversation was just...god....something else!
I found that my talking was too coldly logical in my conversations with ladies. It was too formal and we would run out of shyt to talk about.

So I implemented something really quite simple. There comes a point where talking about the weather like its routine and stock market shares (in fact... don't ever do that)
For women its all about the feeling. When the weather is talked about with passion it BECOMES interesting because all the elements such as how it makes you feel can make a conversation become more vibrant more than just pointing out the obvious "Its sunny innit"
The simple phrase "Hey, how are you feeling?" can create a very interesting conversation and Speaking what you feel also goes to enhancing the event. I noticed doing this made almost instantaneous rapport, just think how HER feeling go ignored and how much that simple question elicits her into letting them flood out.
the thing is you actually have to listen to what is being said. Ypu have to say it with true curiosity too coz if you don't really wanna know...she'll know.

this is really just to help you guys who need help in that department.

I agree...the "how are you feeling?" approach is one of the true ways where women can open up to a guy and tell them how they're doing (as women love to ramble on and on about their emotions and stuff) It's very easy to find some common ground and use that to your advantage....

- Kingbeef

so instead of going with the usual approach, you should try the "how are you feeling?" . i think that should be thrown in after talking for a while.

I wasn't thinking of it as an approach, i was just assuming it was common sense to have a bit of a conversation establised before just blurting it out.
As I said, its to try and help add some vibrancy to the proceedings. Whatever suits your style man.

I work in a retail environment and have to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Nothing perks up a woman's ears more than "how are you"... but it has to be said sincerely and with eye contact.

Not my strength... but I'm working on it.