Burnout is not just something that happens to people when they work too hard or have too much stress or don't like their jobs. It is not the direct result of inhumane, unfair or overdemanding situations at work. All of these contribute to burnout but don't cause it.

It is not the same as mid-life crisis, but mid-life crises can be forms of burnout. It is not depression, though depression can be involved. It is not related only to work, though it does have to do with how we use our creativity. Nor is burnout a modern epidemic that needs to be arrested.

The message here is that burnout is the state of mind, body and spirit reached by those of us who have come to the end of a particular road but haven't acknowledged this.

Burnout announces this fact in the strongest possible terms. It can emerge out of any situation or relationship where we put our creativity at the service of our passion, our heart, our belief, our identity or our belonging. And rather than being cured, burnout needs to be honored and listened to.

Burnout is, or rather can be, a door to walk through into a life with space, love and joy - indeed, a sense of being able to be one's true self. In fact, burning out is a sign that we have already begun to know something about our true self that we are not quite ready to tell ourselves. Some voice of truth inside whispers to us that our old ways of relating are not working and we need to stop, rethink and find a new way forward. We don't dare to. Yet we cannot afford not to.

We are evolving beings, becoming more and more conscious of the true direction of our lives. The more we evolve, the greater the cost to us of not following our intuitive longings. It can be literally fatal for us not to do what on some level we know we are meant to do. Burnout is the result of having become better able to hear our soul but not yet daring to listen. Burnout demands that we listen.

People who have been through burnout and listened to what it had to teach them feel grateful for the experience, even if they are still suffering from its effects. They know burnout stopped them from doing or being something they no longer wanted to do or be. Most are amazed that they could have lived that way, and some are equally amazed that they managed to get out of it. Edward, an engineer at the time he burnt out, told me, 'If it weren't for my burnout I don't think I would be around today. It saved my life.'

What does joy have to do with it?: Where does joy fit in? Joy, as I am referring to it in this book, has a rather specific meaning. It is not happiness or contentment or ex­citement. These relate to being satisfied or even thrilled with our present-life situation. Joy has nothing to do with our life situation. It has to do with the love of life itself.

Joy emerges in the spaces rather than in the content of our lives. It is what happens when, even for a moment, we feel totally free, with a sense of space around us and inside us. The colors become more vivid, and a laugh bubbles up naturally. Joy may be experienced alone or with others. It may occur when we connect to nature or to a child's smile. It may emerge after hours of meditation or just a momentary glimpse of the blue lining of a bird's wing. It may even happen when everything has gone wrong and we just start to laugh and laugh at the sheer surreal irony of it all.

At that moment, our life situation doesn't matter. Life itself is our joy. Being ourselves is our delight. Burning out could almost be defined as joylessness. We have lost contact with the Divine Comedy, that ability to laugh compassionately at the terrible and wonderful ways in which life works itself out. Yet burnout forces us to take a step towards joy. We won't stop, so burnout stops us.

We won't make a space for ourselves, so we burn out and all we have is space. And it is out of that space that the joy eventually comes. 

Recognising the impact of health on performance, Dianna holds qualifications in nutritional and health fields that enable her to identify and resolve health issues affecting business and personal goals. 

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