I am aware of my heart beating, and now, so are you. This is part of our consciousness. Nerves suffuse our bodies, and clearly contribute data to our sense of being, our consciousness. We know so little about how that sense of self is effected that there aren't even any arguments against the ideas that have been put forward that our whole bodies generate our consciousness, and not just our brains.

We just have no idea from whence the snippets of it come, nor how they're assembled into the gestalt we undertake to be. I feel in my heart that what my gut tells me is correct =p.