Top 10 Entries in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

This is something we all can subconsciously relate to but never really speak about. Maybe it's because we have less to do as kids and spend time doing fewer things, or maybe it's because kids cannot comprehend having existed for a long time due to their limited frame of reference. Either way, this is a very real thing that we all feel but don't talk about.

Relativity absolutely has no effect on our perception that time flies by quickly. It's our minds themselves as we age when we experience and do many things that shape our lives.

It's definitely intriguing to think about the fact that every other person leads an epic story that continues invisibly around you, like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you'll never know existed. In those lives, you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, or as a lighted window at dusk.

This is interesting since we are all conditioned to think that the world revolves around us, but that's not wrong, since we aren't exactly in control of other people's lives. Still, it is fascinating to think that every single person has a unique story in their lives, where they are the main character.

Socha refers to an optical illusion that's easy to fall for, even if you know the trick. The more distant you are from other people, the more invulnerable they appear.

You see yourself as you are, with your flaws just as clear as your successes, but you see most other people on their terms, only from the side they present to the world: stoic and confident. At first glance, they seem to have everything figured out, with everything set in stone, securely embedded in their community, wrapped up with their loved ones, their lives like a finished work of art.

But it's only a trick of perspective. Everyone else seems to be doing better than you because you can't see the cracks from so far away. You can't see how insecure their footing is or how malleable they really are. You don't know how many years of effort went into shaping their persona into something acceptable or how many other hands it took to build their lives, which are still only ever a work in progress.

It's the kind of basic human vulnerability that we'd all find familiar but is still somehow surprising when we notice it in others. It's an open question why we have such public confidence and such private doubts.

This word refers to the subconscious thoughts we get about surviving a plane crash, losing everything in a fire, or plunging over a waterfall. These thoughts would put a kink in the smooth arc of your life and forge it into something hardened, flexible, and sharp, not just a stiff prefabricated beam that barely covers the gap between one end of your life and the other.

This feeling arises when you're slightly yet constantly annoyed with your current situation and want some uncertainty in your life. It's as though you subconsciously wish that you would be struck by disaster in hopes that it would relieve you of your current problems, even though you know that it is not a realistic and practical solution to your problems.

This mainly refers to a general dislike of a highly algorithmic approach to life. When you get annoyed at seeing people trying so hard to get some seemingly insignificant stuff under control, you realize that instead of such a lifestyle, it's better to "loosen your grip on things" and be in a position where you're mentally prepared for unplanned events.

Such an approach to life would improve your long-term mental health stability and might also lead you to have a more fruitful life where you have experienced and learned a lot of things.

When you are not able to talk to others about your experience since they aren't able to relate to it, it allows that particular experience to drift away from the rest of your life story until the memory itself feels out of place, almost mythical. It wanders restlessly in the fog, no longer even looking for a place to land, and you wonder whether such an event actually happened.

This actually becomes a kind of meta word as this particular feeling is the reason why the author made so many of these words, and he also chose to make this particular one as well.

This is a relatable feeling for most of us. It may refer to an overdue task, a nagging guilt, or a looming and shapeless future. These thoughts circle high overhead during the day and peck at the back of your mind while you try to sleep. You can successfully ignore them for weeks, only to feel their presence hovering outside the window, waiting for you to finish having fun, while the unpleasant feeling gradually gets stronger every night.

This noun refers to a kind of psychological exoskeleton that can protect you from pain and contain your anxieties but always ends up cracking under high stress or hollowed out by time. It will keep growing back again and again until you develop a more sophisticated emotional structure, held up by a strong and flexible spine, built less like a fortress than a cluster of treehouses.