Human beings are born with various flaws and risks. Some of these include poor vision, cancer and an affinity for pop music. We also tend to become bored with life's beauty and miracles. Many of us know this quite well. We think that it is part of growing up or just a result of living in the society we do. We don’t consider that maybe we can keep our senses of wonder.

To set a common scene: a man walks out of his house to get the mail. The sun is shining, warming his arms as he steps into the light. A cool breeze passes through his yard. Hundreds of little blades of grass quiver in the wind, and then bend—but never break—as he sets foot on them, making a soft trail as he moves along. Birds chirp, fluttering about to business the man has no idea of. He makes it to his mailbox and opens the lid (enabled to do so by mechanics and universal laws he does not understand), takes the mail and goes back inside to watch television for the remainder of the day, oblivious to what he just witnessed.

This is familiar to us and happens more as we age. A warm day is just a warm day. We’ve experienced dozens of warm days already and will probably experience dozens more. Or perhaps each year we age, we experience so many exciting events with quickly fading euphoria that we just expect our wonder to wear off.

Naturally, as we grow older, we mature and that little-kid exuberance fades. Having wonder as an adult will not be the same as having wonder as a child—and it does not need to be. There are actually ways that adults can still retain a sense of wonder while using their increased life experience to do so.

Finding awe in everyday life consists largely of three things: having patience, experiencing well and thinking well. All of these things require our maturity and increased age. Keeping an ability to find wonder in life does not require excess nostalgia or a childish approach to life.

Patience is important, especially for people like us so used to instant gratification. We live in a culture full of screens, divided attention and the pursuit of the “next best thing” (because apparently the last best things were not best enough).

Finding the beauty in something requires our focus. We need to give something or someone the undivided attention we are so unaccustomed to extending. We need to stop for some time before we can “smell the roses.”

Experiencing something well requires the use of our senses. It helps immerse us in whatever we are doing so that we can interact with it, rather than be stuck by ourselves in our own heads. Half of the wonder comes from getting the focus off of ourselves.

There are five ways we can redirect our attention: our senses. For example, we can look at a flower with our eyes. We can note its different colors and where one fades into another. We can smell its scent. We can listen to the faint breeze that makes the flower bobble and sway. We can feel its soft petals and the sun warming our arms. We can taste the watery taste of humidity on our tongues.

We can use the senses to experience and enjoy the outside world, and intentionally gaze with wonder upon it.

We can also engage with the world around us through our thoughts. Thinking well about something prompts our curiosity toward it. Much of the time when we find something to be boring, it is because we are engaging with it on a surface level and failing to think about its real significance.

We can make note of the different features of a plant, ask about things we don’t know about it, think about how it was made, wonder what processes allow it to survive, think of what it reminds us of and what qualities it possesses outside of its appearance and function. Doing this will provoke some deeper thoughts about whatever we are encountering, be it a single plant, a landscape or a person.

The beauty of life does not have to end when life ceases to be new to us or becomes more difficult. So as long as we are living in this world, all of us can maintain a sense of wonder—and we can use our maturity to do it.