Feature Column | From External Pollution to Inner Smog: An Environmental Engineer's Journey of System Optimization through the IDGs

Hsun-Ling Pai | Visiting Professor, Aerosol Science Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University; Professor Emerita, Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

My Encounters with Emotional Turbulence

As a former professor in environmental engineering, my daily work revolved almost entirely around pollution control. Beyond teaching and research, I was constantly moving between environmental conferences and industrial consulting projects. Even at home, conversations with my husband, who is also in the same field, rarely strayed far from topics of environmental protection.

Yet during my time teaching at National Chiao Tung University, I encountered a deeply ironic blind spot. More often than not, after resolving environmental issues in the lab or at the conference table, I would return home only to be thrown off balance by the smallest disruptions of daily life. A careless remark from my partner or a child’s seemingly unreasonable outburst could easily cause me to lose my composure. At the time, I was younger and had no effective way of dealing with these reactions.

I was highly skilled at regulating external pollutants—PM2.5, NOx, VOCs, and more—yet I had overlooked the fact that my own inner system had long been accumulating excessive levels of "emotional waste" and "inner smog."

Later, through a series of unexpected opportunities, I began exploring various approaches to improving mind–body well-being. I set an intention for myself: to remain inwardly steady regardless of external circumstances. Yet I soon realized how difficult this truly was.

And so, whenever I reacted emotionally—toward my partner, my children, or my students—I would fall into self-criticism: "Haven't I already learned better ways to handle this? Why am I still getting angry?" Once caught in an emotional vortex, it is remarkably difficult to step out of it.

In the past, when confronted with emotional turbulence, my instinct was much the same as when dealing with pollution sources: to suppress or eliminate it.

Yet emotional turbulence turns out to resemble industrial emissions more than one might expect. The more deliberately we attempt to regulate pollution through rational systems—much like legal enforcement—the more likely it is that certain actors will find ways to bypass those constraints. Similarly, suppressed emotions often resurface in unexpected ways.

Through my study of A Course of Light, I came to understand that the human body is a highly sophisticated, multi-layered energy system. Emotions arising under pressure are like warning signals on a control panel, indicating the need to reflect on and become aware of one’s inner state. Emotions are not meant to be suppressed, but understood. Only by grasping the meaning behind them can transformation at the level of thought and consciousness take place.

Yet A Course of Light is not necessarily suited to everyone. This led me to ask: is it possible to find a shared framework—one that can be applied regardless of religious or spiritual background?

Encountering the IDGs (Inner Development Goals)

In recent years, experts across disciplines have come to recognize a shared reality: if the human “inner system” is filled with anxiety, greed, and anger, it becomes impossible to create genuine peace and environmental sustainability in the outer world. In response to the limitations encountered in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the international NGO Inner Development Goals (IDG) was established. It introduced a new framework—the Inner Development Goals (IDGs)—which extends the focus of solutions beyond external actions to include the cultivation and development of inner human capacities.

When I first encountered the IDGs framework—then consisting of five dimensions and 23 skills—on a Facebook post by Director Chia-Chen Wang of the Aerosol Science Research Center at National Sun Yat-sen University, I was deeply struck. This was precisely the kind of shared framework I had been searching for. In its revised form, the IDGs have since been refined into 25 skills (see table below).

Given the scope of this article, I will focus on what I consider the most foundational of the five IDGs dimensions: Being, and offer a more in-depth reflection based on my own understanding. 

The Being dimension encompasses five key capacities: Inner Compass, Integrity and Authenticity, Openness and Learning Mindset, Self-awareness, and Presence.

At its core, Being is about coming to know oneself.

This notion resonates with teachings found across many spiritual traditions, which emphasize that inner stability gives rise to outer harmony. For instance, Master Sheng Yen advocated “spiritual environmentalism” as a core principle of Dharma Drum Mountain. If we are unable to regulate the turbulence within our own inner environment, how can we hope to address environmental pollution and climate change on a planetary scale?

Through the IDGs framework, it becomes possible to move beyond religious boundaries, integrating core teachings from diverse traditions while also incorporating insights from psychology, adult development, and organizational studies. In practical terms, individuals can adopt methods suited to their own context to cultivate and enhance their inner capacities, using the IDGs as a reference for assessing their growth. For those seeking guidance, the IDG organization provides resources, training programs, and even pathways to become certified IDG ambassadors.

My Approach to Learning the IDGs and Its Empirical Reflections

Among the five capacities within the IDGs dimension of Being, the two that serve as central pivots for me are the Inner Compass and Self-awareness.

When we rely solely on others for answers, we effectively shut down our own inner compass. The most meaningful guidance, however, arises from an inner wisdom that each of us already possesses. Yet in practice, we often lose our way when we are unable to navigate our emotions.

Emotions can be understood as the inner child calling out to us. Only by recognizing the needs and longings of this inner voice can we allow it to guide us toward deeper connection with our inner wisdom. This process requires the cultivation of self-awareness.

In this sense, the Inner Compass and Self-awareness function as two essential capacities that guide inner calibration, enabling us to come to know ourselves and embrace the inner child.

Here, I would like to share two practices I commonly use to cultivate the Being dimension of the IDGs: free writing and meditation.

Free writing is a highly accessible tool that is also widely used in psychological practice. I have developed three guiding principles for its application:

Set aside dedicated time to be fully present with yourself. Allocate about 10 to 15 minutes each day for free writing. While many guidelines suggest using a timer, I personally choose not to. If the practice is truly “free,” it should not be interrupted by external constraints that disrupt the natural flow of thought.

Keep the pen moving—this is how you clear the noise within your personal system. Allow thoughts to flow freely and write them down continuously. Once you begin, do not stop until your mind feels emptied. Especially in the beginning, record everything that arises—scattered thoughts, anxiety, anger, joy—without concern for logic or neatness. This is the first step in reducing internal noise. As the noise diminishes, the authentic inner voice begins to emerge.

Leave space and extract "keywords." This is an additional step I designed from an engineering perspective. Before you begin writing, draw a horizontal line near the bottom of the page to reserve a small blank area. After completing the writing and allowing emotions to settle, return to the text as an engineer would review data. Identify key words or patterns and record them in the reserved space. These keywords often signal areas where your inner system is flagging attention—points that call for reflection and ongoing awareness.

You might wonder whether such a simple method can truly improve one’s inner quality of life. As a researcher, I prefer to let data speak.

After leading a four-week course titled Meditation and Free Writing—two hours per week, totaling eight hours—I conducted a survey to assess its impact. The results offer empirical support for the transformative potential of the IDGs framework:

92% of participants found that free writing was easier than expected. Once the inner system becomes willing to release its noise, an openness and learning mindset allows one to enter a state of presence and flow, where change arises naturally.

87% reported that the practice helped them gain a deeper understanding of themselves, corresponding to the IDGs capacity of self-awareness.

Nearly 80% were able to recognize the needs and longings of their inner child, reducing patterns of self-judgment. This aligns with the IDGs dimension of integrity and authenticity.

More than half (56%) reported that after reducing internal noise through writing, they were able to connect with their inner wisdom—and in some cases, even with a broader sense of connection to the Earth. This suggests that their inner compass had begun to function more clearly.

The effectiveness of combining free writing with meditation lies in their complementary roles. Free writing functions as a form of daily debugging, while meditation supports deeper levels of inner restoration.

The same survey indicated that by the third week, 77% of participants, through a guided meditation titled The Tree of Life and the River of Life, were able to recognize the origins of their emotions and learn how to shift their inner states, effectively completing a reset of their inner system.

Beyond these data, my confidence in this "engineer-refined" approach to free writing has also been reinforced through professional feedback and teaching experience. For instance, a psychology PhD whose dissertation focused on meditation—and who was already well-versed in free writing—enrolled in my Meditation and Free Writing course three times. In addition, I was invited to teach a two-hour session on free writing in the National Taiwan University course Vulnerability and Resilience in Life. The positive response from students led the course instructors to invite me back in subsequent semesters to introduce meditation and free writing practices at the beginning of each term (see Note 2).

From Individual to Collective: A Systemic Mapping between the IDGs and the SDGs

As a scientist accustomed to working with system architectures and flow diagrams, I began to ask myself: once my inner emotional state had stabilized, how could I connect the IDGs framework with the broader agenda of the SDGs? What kind of contribution could I offer to society?

Drawing on my background in environmental and climate science, together with my ongoing work in mind–body well-being, I developed a preliminary mapping framework: Connecting Inner Development (IDGs) with Sustainable Development (SDGs): A Climate Action Perspective (see table below).

This framework represents an initial model of a "from within to without" and "bottom-up" pathway of transformation. It illustrates how development can extend from the IDGs to the SDGs, and from individual change to collective impact.

At the individual level, when we cultivate the Being and Thinking dimensions of the IDGs through practices such as mindfulness, meditation, prayer, self-reflection, and writing, we move beyond passively absorbing external information. Instead, we begin to understand what climate action truly means on a personal level, and are able to embody it in our everyday lives.

At the collective level, organizations and nations are ultimately composed of individuals. When decision-makers and members within these systems develop inner stability, they are better able to embody empathy and inclusiveness—key capacities within the Relating and Collaborating dimensions of the IDGs. This, in turn, directly supports the implementation of the SDGs, enabling more resilient climate adaptation strategies, more effective transformation planning, and ultimately a higher likelihood of achieving ESG goals within organizations.

I have also begun developing a series of public-oriented videos that introduce the IDGs in a more accessible and everyday context (see Note 3).

Conclusion: Stabilizing the Inner Climate, Enabling Outer Sustainability

Now approaching the age of sixty-three, and after many years of trial, adjustment, and reflection, I have gradually come to understand a teaching often emphasized in A Course of Light: “Thought directs energy, and energy follows thought. How we perceive ourselves shapes who we become.” Through self-awareness, when we begin to understand the meaning behind our emotions, we are able to guide this intense energy with clarity, allowing it to return to a state of inner balance. This is a process of system optimization that requires deep patience—both with oneself and with others—and remains an ongoing commitment I hold for myself.

As scientists and engineers, we are often skilled at solving external problems. Yet as women in science and technology, we may also carry a deeper awareness of the balance between yin and yang. The IDGs framework offers a gentle but steady reminder: all external change ultimately originates from inner awakening.

The next time you feel your rational control slipping and your emotional “pollution levels” rising, consider setting aside your experiments and data for a moment. Take out a pen and give yourself ten minutes to begin a session of free writing—your first step in inner debugging.

You may come to realize that the key to clearing inner smog—and perhaps even to advancing sustainability in the wider world—has been in your hands all along.

Note 1: For a guided meditation on entering the Tree of Life and connecting with the soul, see: Entering the Tree of Life and Connecting with the Soul — Guided Meditation
https://youtu.be/9Bg_V55tp0Q?si=5zAK4IUKz2b90qj_

Note 2: For a more comprehensive explanation of the method, please refer to my earlier article: Knowing Yourself and Finding Inner Stability through Meditation and Free Writing
https://www.beyondbeyond.com.tw/category/Body-Mind-Balancing/articles/70

Note 3: An introductory video to the IDGs series is available here: A Scientific Approach to Emotional Breakdown: Activating Your IDGs Navigation System through Inner Engineering | IDGs Series Ep.1 — Being: Free Writing Method

Note 4: Regarding the "gender (yin–yang) principle," I have previously organized universal principles into four dimensions, within which this principle is situated under the second dimension, the Law of Structural Correspondence. For further details, readers may refer to my earlier articles and YouTube videos.

Dr. Pai's learning trajectory is highly interdisciplinary, spanning medical science and technology, social sciences, humanities, and mind–body integration. Her work focuses on processes of recovery, development, and transformation in the context of trauma, limitation, and life transitions. She believes that while science helps us understand the mechanisms of the body and the world, the humanities allow us to perceive the broader context of life and the depth of the human spirit. Their intersection, she suggests, is where meaningful understanding, compassionate accompaniment, and genuine transformation begin.

Her teaching and practice encompass career and life development from a sustainability perspective, social–ecological system resilience, the social implementation of the IDGs and SDGs, neuropsychological development and therapeutic approaches, counseling theories and techniques, as well as special education and guidance-related courses.