The mind has the nature of not being in the present. It is always in the past or future. The characteristic of the senses is that they can only function in the present. The nose cannot smell a fragrance that is coming tomorrow or that was there yesterday. We can only hear through our ears what is being spoken now. If you can hook your your sense onto something it likes, the mind goes along with that sense into the present moment. This is the easiest way to bring the mind into the present state.