Yes. I've done mindfulness meditation as part of a DBT program. I can honestly say that I found it to be the most helpful part of the skills training.

While mindfulness meditation has traditionally been linked to buddhism a similar attitude can be fostered with prayer (just in case the buddhist link puts people off).

I found it helped me with relaxation, feeling happier, distress tolerance, pain relief, awareness / acceptance of bodily states / thoughts / feelings etc, sleep... Really can't say enough good things about it :-)

I haven't read the books you have mentioned - but I have heard that those books are the 'standard' books for learning about this stuff. I've seen one of them at borders and I've been tempted... But I really don't have money to spend on books at the moment (health insurance payment coming up soon).

:-)