Know why you should allow yourself to be bored and what your brain does when you are sitting idle. Being bored is dreaded, so there's an entire arsenal of distractions designed to keep it at bay. You end up doomscrolling, laughing hysterically at cat memes, working on a challenging puzzle, or simply letting music play in the background while you clean your room. In a nutshell, you may find it difficult to sit with emptiness, always reaching for some form of stimulation to keep yourself engaged.ALSO READ: Feeling like you're living the same day on repeat? Psychotherapist reveals 6 signs you may be stuck in burnout cycleCan being bored be a good thing for your brain? Find out. (Picture credit: Freepik)But can this limbo of restlessness, impatience and irritation actually mean something? Your knee-jerk reaction to boredom is to counter it immediately, but what happens when you intentionally allow yourself to feel bored for once?Let's put this food for thought to the test, or at least try to understand whether there is a positive side to the antagonised feeling of boredom. Dr Megha Agarwal, consultant psychiatrist at Kailash Deepak Hospital, shared with HT Lifestyle that boredom is not necessarily something to be avoided all the time.Boredom is not necessarily a negative state. The psychiatrist's advice provides a different perspective from the conventional narrative, which treats boredom as something uncomfortable to sit with.Dr Agarwal insisted on being bored for the brain to get the ‘quiet moments.’ “One thing I often tell my patients is that we have started treating boredom as something that must be avoided at all costs. The moment we get a few free minutes, we reach for our phones, start scrolling, or look for something to keep us occupied. But the brain actually needs those quiet moments.”How does your brain benefit if you are bored?An idle mind has its benefits, as it activates what the psychiatrist referred to as the brain's ‘internal housekeeping’ mode. This occurs when you are not focused on any specific task. Dr Agarwal described that a great deal of mental processing takes place. "Brain processes emotions, organises memories, connects ideas, and sometimes helps us find solutions to problems that seemed difficult earlier.”Now, this mental processing, which is mentioned, is important. According to the doctor, constantly consuming information without giving the brain enough time to process it can leave you feeling exhausted. This is why allowing yourself to feel bored occasionally may actually help the mind pause, sort through information and reset.How can you allow yourself to be ‘bored’?Go for a quiet walk and let your thoughts untangle and your brain process. (Picture credit: Unsplash)Being bored does not mean spending hours doing nothing and being unproductive. That is not the takeaway here. Instead, the psychiatrist suggested allowing yourself to experience boredom in a meaningful way. But what does meaningful boredom look like? “Give yourself a few moments every day without screens or distractions. A quiet walk, sitting with a cup of tea, or letting the mind wander can be surprisingly beneficial,” he added. So when you pause, you think clearly, feel calmer, and even be more creative. The parting advice from the doctor is an important message who trivialise boredom: “Sometimes, doing nothing for a while is exactly what the brain needs.”About the expert Dr Agarwal is a consultant psychiatrist specialising in de-addiction psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. She has over 11 years of experience, with 4 years as a specialist. She completed her MBBS from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik, in 2014 and her MD in Psychiatry from Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, Jaipur in 2018. Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.Adrija Dey’s proclivity for observation fuels her storytelling instinct. As a lifestyle journalist, she crafts compelling, relatable narratives across diverse touchpoints of the human experience, including wellness, mental health, relationships, interior design, home decor, food, travel, and fashion that gently nudge readers toward living a little better. For her, stories exist in flesh and bones, carried by human vessels and shaped through everyday endeavours. It is the small stories we live and share that make us human. After all, humans and their lores are the most natural and raw repositories of stories, and uncovering them, for her, is akin to peeling an orange under a winter afternoon sun. Always up for a chat, she believes the best stories come from unfiltered yapping, where "too much information" is kind of the point. A graduate of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, and an alumna of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, Adrija spends her idle hours cocooned with herbal tea and a gripping thriller, scribbling inner monologues she loosely calls poetic pieces, often with her succulents in attendance. On lazier days, she can be found binge-watching, for the nth time, one from her comfort-show holy trinity: The Office (US), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or Modern Family. Dancing by herself to her peppy playlists, however, is an everyday ritual she swears by religiously.Read MoreMental HealthCatch every big hit, every wicket with Crick-it, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Quizzes, Polls & much more. Explore now!.Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.See Less