Is Sitting Still Making Your Brain Dirty?

Issue #530 – Monday, June 1, 2026

📬 In This Issue:

🧠 The hidden way movement keeps your brain clean

💡 How to connect with your purpose & enjoy your life to the max

🗝️ Which parts of the brain work together to handle emotions

🔊 The brainwaves that act as your other cleaning crew 

🎤 Why your best ideas don't come at your desk

🧠The Big Idea

Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes

Is Sitting Still Making Your Brain Dirty?

The Surprising Link Between Movement & a Healthier Brain

By Ryan Standifird

A few weeks ago, I finally got myself a standing desk.

My reasoning was simple. I'd been sitting for hours every day, my lower back was complaining, and I figured less sitting and more movement would be good for my health. I even contemplated one of those little under-desk treadmills… but let’s take baby steps here.

And while I figured this would be a great help to my body, what I didn't realize was that I’m actually helping my brain, too!

Because according to a recent study, the simple act of standing up, shifting your weight, and moving - even if it’s just a little bit - may be making a major brain health difference behind the scenes.

Your Brain's Hidden Cleaning Crew

In April of 2026, researchers at Penn State published a study in Nature Neuroscience that recently caught my attention.

Led by neuroscientist Patrick Drew, the team discovered that your brain is far more physically connected to the rest of your body than previously thought.

Here's the gist:

Every time you contract your abdominal muscles - even just slightly, like when you get up from your chair or take a step or even have a good laugh - you squeeze a network of blood vessels connected to your spine. 

That sends a gentle pressure pulse upward… and causes your brain to sway ever so slightly inside your skull.

Not dramatically. Just a little bit.

And that tiny motion appears to push cerebrospinal fluid across the surface of your brain - carrying away the metabolic waste that builds up in your brain tissue over the course of a day.

One of the researchers described it like this: 

Think of your brain like a sponge. How do you clean a dirty sponge? You squeeze it.

Movement, it seems, is one of the ways your brain gets squeezed clean.

We've long known your brain has a waste-clearance system - called the glymphatic system - that's most active while you sleep. This new study suggests that waking movement may do a parallel job during the day.

So when you sit perfectly still for hours… you may be skipping a cleaning cycle.

How to Keep Your Brain's Plumbing Flowing

So what can we take from this new information?

The good news is that the bar is low. We're not talking about running marathons. We're talking about simple easy motion. Here are a few ways you can squeeze in a little more motion and get your brain a little cleaner.

1. Stand up more often. This is where my standing desk earns its keep. Standing naturally engages your core and shifts your weight far more than slumping in a chair does. Even if you don't have a standing desk, you can always set a reminder to stand up every 30 minutes.

2. Walk whenever you can. Walking is the movement the researchers specifically pointed to in the study. And it‘s one of the easiest movements to do! Take a call on your feet. Park farther away. Pace the kitchen while your coffee brews. Not only does this help your brain health, it helps your body health too!

3. Fidget without guilt. I’ll admit, I often find myself unconsciously shaking my leg while sitting at the dinner table - often to the annoyance of my wife. But now science is on my side! Tapping your foot, shifting in your seat, bouncing your leg - those small, almost unconscious movements all slightly engage your core and keep things gently in motion. “I’m just cleaning my brain, honey,” is my new excuse. 

4. Get your brainwaves to help out. Here's something you may not realize. That same waste-clearance glymphatic system can also be nudged by your brainwaves. Specifically, gamma brainwaves have been known to help clear out brain waste. In a 2024 study in Nature, MIT researchers found that 40 Hz gamma wave activity helped clear amyloid plaque - the kind linked to Alzheimer's. A gamma-state meditation could be like brushing your teeth… for your brain.

Coming Back to Stillness

At the end of the day, it’s like everything else in life. Moderation is key.

Rest and stillness isn’t bad. We all need it. You can’t meditate without it!

But there's a difference between mindfully restoring your brain and body and simply going motionless for hours on end. (Kids these days call it “rotting” - how appropriate!)

The big thing to remember is this: 

Your body and your brain aren't two separate machines. 

They're one connected system. 

When you move, you're not just helping your back, your heart, or your waistline.

You’re also helping your brain stay clean and healthy.

So the next time you realize you've been sitting too long, try something new. 

Stand up. Stretch. Take a lap around the kitchen.

Your brain will thank you for it.

💡Check it Out!

Purposeful Life

Pre-order before June 3 to save $10!

You don't find your purpose. Your purpose finds you! 

Purposeful Life is a 4-part Holosync journey designed to create the inner conditions where your purpose can finally be heard. Four tracks guiding your brain through opening, understanding, activating and living the purpose that has been with you all along. 

Discover what happens when you stop searching and start listening.

🤣Meditation Meme of the Week

My Brain, Finally Getting Cleaned

🗝️Insiders Only

Listen to the Most Recent Brains ‘R’ Us Podcast

Listen Now:

🔊 Marc’s Sound Lab

The Brain's Other Cleaning Crew

I want to pick up on something Ryan tucked into his fourth tip, because it's easy to skim past - and it's one of the most fascinating findings in brain science right now.

We tend to think of clearing brain waste as a physical thing - fluid moving, muscles squeezing. But your brain also has an electrical rhythm to it, and it turns out those rhythms matter for housekeeping too.

When researchers drove brains into a steady 40 Hz gamma rhythm, the waste-clearing machinery kicked into a higher gear.

Sound is one of the most reliable ways we know to influence brainwaves. A steady auditory pulse, delivered the right way, nudges the brain toward matching it - the very principle Holosync has been built on for decades.

So movement squeezes the sponge from the outside. Sound helps wring it out from the inside. That’s a huge advantage!

- Marc

🎤 MaryEllen's Mic Drop

Ever notice your best ideas almost never show up while you're staring at the problem?

They hit you in the shower. On a walk. Halfway across the parking lot.

That's not a coincidence - that's your brain working better the moment your body starts moving.

So the next time you're stuck, stop grinding. Stand up and move. Who knows what breakthroughs you’ll find.

- MaryEllen

💌 Enjoying Mind Power?

Share this issue with someone who could benefit!

🪞 Like the New Look?

You might have noticed that Mind Power has a new look.
What is your opinion on this refresh?