Mental heath is more than a diagnosis or a mental illness. It's about taking the time to proactively engage in positive experiences. For some, there is an element of implementing strategies to manage a mental illness and for others its self maintenance and self care.

Personally and professionally, mental health is a particular interest of mine. I have experienced times of depression and anxiety of my own and through family members. Professionally, my Masters thesis focussed on postnatal depression and the way that diet and exercise can be influencers as well as working with clients to improve their mental health.

With our busy modern lives, I often see self care dropped to the very bottom of my client's priorities. Mums - I'm mostly talking to you here. What we forget though, is that if we don't practice self care, our ability to care for others is limited. It's not selfish to put yourself first - when you are your best self, you can also be the best partner, parent, friend, sibling, grandparent... your best self also makes you the best partner in life for your loved ones.

These are all inward looking comments, and today is "Are You OK? Day". This is the point where you take pause and think about your relationships, and checking in with those around you - because in the same way that you are probably carrying around a lot, so are the people beside you - you aren't alone. And asking someone whether they are OK, may be exactly what they need at that moment.

So what else can you proactively do to look after your mental health? I'm going to share my top SIX evidence based self care tips. The idea of each of these is that anyone can implement any of these, every day:

1. Healthy eating. Honestly, do not buy into the fads. If you include 5 serves of vegetables and 2 pieces of fruit in your diet every day, you're immediately off to a great start. Add in some lean proteins like fish, chicken and lean red meats. Then add some healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds, and finish with a few serves of quality wholegrains you're basically eating the perfect diet.
2. Swap out the sometimes foods. Thankfully, when you adopt a healthy eating pattern, you naturally crowd out the junk. And when I talk about junk, I include everything from chips and cookies through to alcohol, soft drinks and juices.
3. Healthy gut, healthy mind. In recent years we have found that our gut bacteria are a vial component of our immune system. Despite being confined to our digestive tract, these millions of tiny creatures send out messages to our bodies and our brain and can affect everything from weight loss and disease to our mood. To simplify it, the type of bacteria that we have will affect the dominating messages. So diversity is crucial, as is having the right balance of health promoting bacteria. If you are already doing tips 1 and 2, you're already on the road to good gut health. Now add a serve of fermented food like yoghurt, kefir, or fermented veggies every day.
4. Time out. The reality of life is that there is stress everywhere. Often removing that stress isn't realistic, but making choices about the types of people we let into our lives, how we divide up our time, fuelling and moving our bodies can all aid in decreasing our stress levels. For some of us meditation works wonders, for others engaging in activities outdoors can be just as meditative. Find something you love, and switch off regularly.
5. Move your body. You don’t need to join a gym, you don’t need to call it exercise. It can be as simple as riding to work, or getting up a little bit earlier in the morning to go for a walk. But move every day for at least 30 to 40 minutes.
6. Sleep. Make sleep a priority. Keep your bedroom free of TVs, or other technology. Set yourself a bedtime and stick to it. Aim for 7-8 hours of shut eye every night.

And that is the secret to feeling great. If you're not feeling great, that's OK to, and its OK to let someone know and ask for help.