Welcome to the Happiness Podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. We spend billions of dollars on anti-aging creams, supplements, ice baths, trying to add years to our lives. But sadly, we often ignore the one thing actively aging us from the inside out. That's our emotional baseline.

What do I possibly mean by that? Did you ever see the movie Mary Poppins? It was one of the first

movies that I ever saw. I was four years old and my parents, my sister, and I went to the

drive-in theater. It was so exciting.

I was mesmerized by Dick Van Dyke's energy, enthusiasm, and overall just character. He was great.

Did you know he's still alive and that he just turned 100? And he's actually doing quite well. So as you can

imagine, people wanted to find out what is his secret to aging so well? And he gave his secret.

He didn't credit a strict diet or an intense workout. He attributed his century of life to

maintaining a positive outlook and making a conscious

choice not to get angry.

One of my first childhood heroes ended up living a life that he was portraying on the silver

screen.

What a beautiful and informative real life story. And what he shared is exactly what I have found in exploring the

higher reaches of human nature over the past 30 years. A long, happy life isn't about avoiding

tragedy or frustration. It's about cultivating an internal environment where anger cannot survive for long.

So what is the physiology of anger and why is it bad for us?

What does chronic anger actually do to our bodies?

When we hold on to resentment, our body stays in a constant state

of fight or flight. It floods our system with cortisone and adrenaline. Think of it like pouring

cortisol acid on our body. It's going to wear us down. And age us. Over time, this chronic inflammation damages our blood vessels,

weakens our immune system, and literally accelerates cellular aging.

There's a very famous quote that goes,

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