When you are young, you think you can change the world,
When you get old, you realize that the world changed you instead.

Kew L. Ang Summer 2007

And now a research to prove that writing down your feelings (blogging) helps you to feel better. This is because the act of writing the feelings down, makes the feeling of anger and pain less intense. Read the full article here.

“When you put feelings into words, you’re activating this prefrontal region and seeing a reduced response in the amygdala,” he said. “In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses.”

As a result, an individual may feel less angry or less sad.

This is ancient wisdom,” Lieberman said. “Putting our feelings into words helps us heal better. If a friend is sad and we can get them to talk about it, that probably will make them feel better.”

This is on negative feelings, how about positive feelings, I wonder if you write about love, will you feel less love?

A few years back, there was an “out of the box thinking” class delivered by senior managers from the US. It was an interesting class, and the thing I get most out of the class was the weekly inspiration that one of the instructor sends out. He compiles inspirational stories on his own time and sends it out every Friday, thus the term, Friday Reflections were born. Now, a few years in, his effort has resulted into a book and have also spilled over the internet through his blog, and can be syndicated through feed burner. This week he talks about the creative genius of Steve Jobs, and that his intro of iPhone can replace all corporate trainings on “Out of the box thinking” and “Emotional Intelligence Skills”.

Just like life, the sky is not always sunny. If raining is one end of the spectrum, and denoting the worst, then cloudy is just getting to the worst. And once it rains, the worst has happen and after rain, the sun comes up again. Its rather cloudy in my life now, I wonder when it will rain?

Get your products notice @ the airport. I was roaming Changi International Airport today in transit to LA. After an hour of so loitering and occasional emailing standing up @ the internet kioks, my legs begin to ache. To my amazement, I found free foot massage machine by Oto, and best of all, its free. It started ticklish, then slight pain, and bearing through the first 3 minutes, the rest of the 7 minutes were relaxing, and nice. The short 10 minutes massage leaves me rejuvenated and the feat felt light as I walk on.

During the 10 minutes of massage, I reflected on the opportunity companies have in getting their products noticed at busy airports. Millions of travelers transit @ Changi Airport each month and to have them try the product, its almost a free advert. I wonder of Changi Management charge these companies to place their device @ the airport. I would see this as a win win win, Changi management can provide comfort and services to the customer, at the expense of the product supplier, while the product supplier wins on the adverts, the consumer wins on the free service or comfort they receive.

Rock band My Chemical Romance first got notice and popular by giving their music free online, now they sells more CD’s & Concert tickets the could ever dream of. Is Oto trying to do the same @ Changi? Nevertheless, I for one now knows how good of a product the foot massager is, in just 10 minutes, I am refreshed. I have seen it in malls all over Malaysia, and never tried any of them. Now, if I see one on sale I wouldn’t mind buying one. The downside to this is Oto is doing marketing not only for themselves, but also for their competitors. Imagine, I see this product, I use it, and I loved it. Then when I get back to my country, I see similar product of different brand, I buys them.

So, while this model is win win win, there are risk involved. With a strong branding, and brand affirmation at these free kiosks, this risk can be mitigated. When I was in Changi Airport 2 years ago, there was free back massage by professional masseurs. I suggest the next time, you are in Changi, check out relaxing massagers.