Why do we need to clear our minds of the issues, incidents, and events that swirl around our chaotic noodles? Because when we do, we’re able to move forward in our lives with lighter hearts and reap the humor and wisdom that allow us to thrive.

In this talk, Author Donna Debs will discuss how writing the stories in her book, Wash Your Brain: Stories. Laughter. Yoga. Life., helped cleanse the chaos in her own mind. She’ll explain how she uses humor and yoga--both as a writer and a yoga teacher--to keep herself laughing and learning, and she’ll invite us to clear our own minds, as we share her foibles and frustrations and relate to her “brainwashing” stories.

Donna Debs is a longtime writer and a longtime yoga teacher, two disciplines that keep her cleansing the chaos in her mind.  Her debut book, Wash Your Brain: Stories. Laughter. Yoga. Life., won GOLD in the Independent Book Publishers Association’s 2025 book-of-the-year contest and SILVER in the Readers’ Favorite annual contest. She was also a finalist in the 2025 Foreword INDIES and was named Humor Writer of the Month for June 2025 by the respected Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop.

For fifteen years, Donna wrote the Sunday slice-of-life humor column for several Philadelphia-area newspapers. She’s also a former news reporter and editor for Philadelphia’s KYW Radio, the former owner of a writing/communications company, and since the late 1990s, she has doubled as an Iyengar yoga teacher with an active yoga studio.