Last week I had a cold and a stuffy nose and suddenly discovered our breath If you notice it, it goes from working "automatically" to "semi-automatically" and when you focus on your nose, you can visibly feel your breath . When you are busy with work or other things, you can't feel your breath. Did you make this discovery? Do you know how this works?
Of course, things like that can happen when you focus your mind on your self or what you do, you become aware of the happenings in your body and things you do. Most humans function in automated/sleep state without using much of their mind or thoughts. It's quite better to switch to the automated state after you have repeated a task several times till you "perfect" it. Awareness could make you become confused, paranoid, afraid, and make mistakes unless you have a pure or good mind.
When you use your mind you become aware. Your brain, mind and spirit sync together.
I don't encourage people to make themselves aware unless they have good mind and spirit. Doing this can open a door to the spiritual and deep things in the mind.