From the book Yoga for Your Type by David Frawley and Sandra Kozak (Lotus Press)

According to the philosophy of Yoga, the physical body is a manifestation of consciousness. It is a crystallization of karmic (behavioral) patterns created by the mind. The key to working with the body, therefore, is to understand the consciousness behind it, much of which lies outside our ordinary awareness. This requires that we practice asanas aware not only of the technicalities of the postures but also of the mental and emotional states that they create within us.

Ayurveda shares this Yoga theory. It views the body as a manifestation of the doshas, which are not merely physical but also pranic and psychological energies―factors of consciousness. We cannot look into the doshic impact of asanas purely on a physical level but must consider their psychological effects as well.

Yoga views asanas not merely as static poses but as conditions of energy, which in turn are manifestations of consciousness. The energy and attention that we put into the pose is as important as the pose itself. We can see this in ordinary life in which how we feel on a psychological level determines how we move on a physical level. Long term patterns of feeling and energy determine the form and rhythm of the body.