One can be conscious of everything around taking in body and mind also. Its only possible because you are other then all these gross and subtle things.
Full conviction in finding the real truth is what required. Believe that you are immortal, timeless, without birth and death, unchanging, constant, uniform -SELF.
Once SELF is established then bliss on limitlessness will follow. Whole cosmos will instantly merge into you. Everything is you. Love , compassion, oneness will explode.