Mindfulness leads to awareness of what is behind, underneath, around things like anxiety and depression. It's a slowing down, an acceptance without judgement.

If you can, read some Pema Chodron: www.shambhala.com I particularly like "When Things Fall Apart" Heart Advice for Difficult Times.

To me, mindlessess and other distractions have a purpose too--to provide temporary and spontaneous relief.

Practicing living in the moment and suspending judgement also provide relief as well as a new way of looking at things that can be preventative in that the resulting feelings change too.

From "When Things Fall Apart": Chapter Six .. It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness.

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Refraining is the method for getting to know the nature of this restlessness and fear. It's a method for settling into groundlessness. If we immediately entertain ourselves by talking, by acting, by thinking--if there's never any pause--we will never be able to relax. We will always be speeding through our lives. We'll always be stuck with what my grandfather called a good case of the jitters. Refraining is a way of making friends with ourselves at the most profound level possible. We can begin to relate with what's underneath all the bubbles and burps, all the stuff that comes out and expresses itself as upright, controlling, manipulative behavior, or whatever it is. Underneath all that, there's something very soft, very tender, that we experience as fear or edginess.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post"> --Pema Chodron

Her writing is very interesting, simple, calming.