Airing Pain 153: Can nature and mindfulness help pain?

This episode is produced in partnership with the British Pain Society. The interview with Sam Hughes was recorded at their 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting.

This episode of Airing Pain looks at the interplay between nature and mindfulness, and how they can become part of the pain management toolkit. 

Nature and neuroscience. Understand the science with Dr Sam Hughes. Learn how nature interacts with pain, and how this interaction works in virtual reality. 

Greater connections. We join the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust on one of their group wellbeing walks. We look at the benefits of building connections with nature, each other and ourselves. 

Focusing on the here and now. We hear from trained and accreditedmindfulness teacher Cath Ashby. Cath explains how the practice of mindfulness can be applied to nature, and what this can do for pain.

Contributors:

• Dr Sam Hughes, a Senior Lecturer in Pain Neuroscience at the University of Exeter

• Elly Kinross, a Woodlands and Greenspace Officer with the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust

• Cath Ashby, a trained and accredited mindfulness teacher