Do you practice meditation on any regular basis? The warriors of Japan had come to appreciate the benefits of meditation to their extremely rigorous way of life by the Kamakura Era; this was one of the reasons Zen Buddhism made such huge inroads in Japan at the time. And even if you are not going to be going out on the literal field of battle any time soon, if you’re not meditating on a regular basis, I’d suggest you are missing out.
I’ve been a fairly regular meditator for a long time now, but recently I have upped my practice: to twice a day, for at least 15 minutes each time (and longer whenever possible — I find that at this point it still usually takes me around 20 minutes to get into a really “deep” state). I can say without a doubt that there have been very positive results. Especially, my creativity and problem-solving powers have clearly increased. I’ve begun suddenly seeing solutions to problems that had been bothering me for a long time, and also seeing solutions to problems I hadn’t even realized were problems at all!
A Scholar Warrior 