Mowditate
Pain does not arise only where it hurts. The brain processes and evaluates signals from the body, and our conscious experience of pain arises from that. Attention, feelings, and expectations can influence this experience further.
This is precisely where meditation can have an effect. It can change how we direct our attention towards pain and how we respond to the sensation. Studies show that mindfulness-based approaches can help with chronic pain. Their effects on pain intensity itself, however, are not always large or clear.1
That is an important distinction: a meditation does not have to make pain disappear in order to change how you deal with it.
And of course, meditation does not automatically treat the physical cause of pain. New, severe, or persistent pain should be medically assessed.