Professor Kim began by introducing three different ways of understanding the human body and the effects of meditation: a neuron-centered perspective, a gene-centered perspective, and a mitochondria-centered perspective.
From a neuron-centered perspective, meditation changes the brain. Through repeated practice and neuroplasticity, neural networks can gradually be reorganized. From a gene-centered perspective, meditation may influence gene expression—the processes that determine which genes are turned on or off and which proteins are produced. Our psychological state, including stress or calmness, can affect these regulatory processes.
But Professor Kim suggested that there may be an even more fundamental way of looking at the human body: through mitochondria and the flow of energy.
The Body as an Energy-Transforming System
Mitochondria are usually described as the “powerhouses” of the cell because they produce ATP, the form of energy our cells use to function. Every movement we make, every thought we have, and every signal transmitted through the brain ultimately requires energy.
Seen from this perspective, much of the human body exists to support this energy system.
Our digestive system processes food and provides glucose. Our respiratory system brings in oxygen. Our cardiovascular system delivers oxygen and nutrients to cells throughout the body. All of these systems ultimately support the production and distribution of energy at the cellular level.
This gave me a very different image of the human body—not simply as a collection of organs or even as a brain controlling everything, but as a living system constantly transforming and distributing energy.
Mitochondria Do More Than Produce Energy
What I found particularly fascinating was the idea that mitochondria are not simply passive batteries.
Professor Kim explained that recent research increasingly looks at mitochondria as sensing and signaling systems. They respond to the body’s energetic condition and help regulate where energy should be used.
When the body is fighting an infection, for example, enormous amounts of energy may need to be redirected toward the immune system. Other functions can temporarily slow down. We lose our appetite, feel tired, think less clearly, and want to lie down.
What we experience as “feeling sick” may therefore also be understood as an intelligent redistribution of energy.
Wild animals seem to follow this instinct naturally. When they are sick, they often stop eating, withdraw, and rest. Humans, on the other hand, may take medicine and continue working because we feel that we cannot stop.
This lecture made me think again about how important rest really is.
Stress Is Not Just in the Mind
Another important point was that chronic stress should not be understood simply as feeling worried, irritated, or mentally overwhelmed.
Stress affects the entire body.
Professor Kim connected chronic stress with persistent immune activation, inflammation, metabolic problems, and the way energy is distributed throughout the body. When this state continues for a long time, the body may remain in a kind of low-level emergency mode, continuously spending energy that could otherwise support movement, cognition, recovery, and everyday functioning.
This helped me understand once again why regulating stress cannot simply mean telling myself, “Don’t worry.”
The body itself has to become calm.
Why Meditation Matters
This is where meditation becomes especially meaningful.
Meditation is not merely an attempt to think positively or temporarily escape from stressful thoughts. It is a way of changing the state of the whole organism.
When we become calmer, more relaxed, and more emotionally stable, the change is not confined to our thoughts. The body receives that signal as well.
This is one reason practices such as meditation, exercise, good sleep, and mindful movement are so important. They can all support the conditions in which our cells and mitochondria function well.
We Are Constantly Changing
Another idea that stayed with me was just how dynamic mitochondria are.
Many cells in our body are continuously replaced, while some neurons can survive for decades. Yet the mitochondria within those cells are much more dynamic, constantly changing, being renewed, removed, divided, and replaced.
That means our energetic condition is not fixed.
The body I have today is not simply the body I am destined to have forever. What I repeatedly do—how I sleep, exercise, manage stress, relate to other people, and practice meditation—matters.
There is something hopeful in that.
Relationships Are Also Part of Our Energy
Professor Kim also connected this perspective with human relationships.
Much of the stress modern people experience ultimately comes from relationships. Conflict at work, financial problems, family difficulties, and many other sources of distress often become painful because of the relationships surrounding them.
At the same time, there are people with whom we simply feel safe and relaxed.
Sometimes we say, “I feel energized when I’m with that person.”
Perhaps that feeling is not merely a metaphor.
The body is constantly sensing whether we are safe or threatened, relaxed or tense, connected or isolated. Our relationships therefore become part of the physiological environment in which we live.
This reminded me again of something Professor Kim often emphasizes: making other people happy is also one of the ways we become happier ourselves.
Why I Want to Teach Meditation
For me, this was not simply an interesting scientific lecture about mitochondria.
It gave me another way to understand why we practice meditation—and why I want to share it with others.
We spend so much of our lives struggling, worrying, rushing, and exhausting ourselves. Over time, this affects not only how we feel emotionally but how our entire body functions.
Meditation gives us an opportunity to interrupt that cycle.
We learn to calm the body, regulate our energy, recover, and return to a more balanced state.
Perhaps that is one way of understanding meditation:
not simply as training the mind,
but as learning how to care for the energy of the whole living body.
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