"Meditation teaches patients how to react to the pain. People are less inclined to have the 'Ouch' reaction, and are able to control their emotional reaction to pain."
"...meditating reduces pain by reducing stress. When a person is upset and agitated, she explained, their nervous system is aroused. This arousal aggravates pain, which in turn becomes another stressor. By relaxing the sympathetic nerves, stress decreases, thereby decreasing pain."
"The primary somatosensory cortex, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex all experienced altered levels of activation due to meditation."
"Meditation has been shown to alter these four areas of the brain. By decreasing activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, the pain processing area, and increasing activity in the three other regions, pain is reduced."
"For a patient with chronic pain, Loeser explained, meditation gives patients a way to take hold of their life again. Over the months, or even years, of undiagnosed pain, patients feel like they lose control of their life and body, like Sarah Kehoe did. Traditional medications no longer work."
"Pain medications ignore the psychological and social aspects of pain. Meditation, however, can treat pain from every level of Loeser’s model of pain, suffering, and behaviors. It diminishes the anxiety surrounding pain, leaving the patient happier, and more in control."
Tai Chi being a very effective & engrossing form of "moving meditation" hence has a lot to offer.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/treating-chronic-pain-with-meditation/284182/