One has to realize that the techniques we give you are not to observe that it goes away. It is to observe it, so that we can see it's changing nature and develop more equanimity towards it. These techniques can also be applied to real pain in that if we start to react to the pain, we notice our reaction, we have compassion for ourselves, we can try to not link all the moments of pain together so it becomes a big blob, right? We can break it up and see it is more arising and passing, and then we can deal with it more moment to moment. Sometimes with real pain we also project into the future and have fear of future pain, but it may not be that we are going to have pain in the future.
So dealing with the aversion and the fear can also be useful. And it is also helpful at times to have a rest from the pain if we have real pain and that is learning how to concentrate on a reflection or a meditation that takes our attention away from the pain and get focused on something else. I found that when I was very ill one time, there was pain and there was lots of difficulty in the body, but then I focused on doing a lot of Sympathetic Joy meditation and the mind got joyful even though there was pain, so learning how to reflect on something else helps to have a rest from the pain. When we have finished that hopefully we will be able to just observe the nature of it and not react so much. Doing the D/D is also very helpful to let go of our aversions to it. So there are many different ways of doing meditation in a balanced way so we either focus or observe the changes so we don't become the pain, "this is me". It helps to see the pain as one thing and the awareness of it as another. Getting a little bit of distance and learning how to focus on concentration type joyful meditations or Compassion/Lovingkindness meditations to have a rest from the pain. Reflections on the Buddha/Dhamma/Sangha are also very helpful to bring more happiness to the mind.