I agree with that, BeMySelf, about mindfulness. I first learned about mindfulness while I was still drinking, and it helped me a bit with my anxiety and depression. Like my anti D medications, though, nothing really helped my whole situation until the drinking stopped.
It wasn't for some months that the penny dropped and I understood that the recognition aspect of AVRT was simply a specific instance of mindfulness. Eckhart Tolle helped a lot with that understanding by showing how 'becoming the watcher' inserts that space around our thoughts. It is this space which permits an awareness without action.
For me the practice of mindfulness is the return of my consciousness back to my focus after becoming aware of the presence of thoughts and accepting that presence. The practice of AVRT is the return of my consciousness back to my Big Plan after becoming aware of the presence of my Beast and accepting that presence, or at least becoming indifferent.
That sort of recognition is just what I needed to learn to allow me to use AVRT effectively. Awareness and recognition, acceptance without action following separation from the ego-self, and a Big Plan informing all aspects.