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When an entrepreneur decides to strike out on their own, they also have to be wary about following difficult or less helpful avenues toward success. For example, there are many “entrepreneurs” out there with a sole business model of giving advice, sometimes outdated and often theatrical more than practical, to up-and-coming individuals trying to make something of themselves. Following that advice can be akin to spinning your wheels, or worse, handing over money for programs that don’t work.

The same could be said for self-care. While the goal of taking care of yourself is noble and necessary, it’s important to acknowledge that self-care has become an industry. If you didn’t know better, you would assume that every single supplement you see in a health store is necessary to live a good life, when that’s patently not true, and a good way to damage your health.

So, self-care is as much about self-defense and wise decision-making as it is about self-preservation and care. In this post, we’ll offer three tips to make sure you achieve that:

Consider Where Your Supplements Are From

Any company can make claims about the quality of their supplement, but sometimes they don’t even have to declare it as having any medicinal benefit to still sell it as a dietary aid. For this reason, make sure you know what the actual dosages are, how they’ve been sourced, and look at the lab reports if you can. Even certain other supplements can be verified if they’re front and center about their process, such as with 25 Hour Farms. This way, you know you’re only putting good, verified products into your body.

Guard Your Time

Ultimately, self-care requires time. This means you have to guard it now and then, and there’s no shame in doing that. For example, perhaps you’ve been invited for after-work drinks, but you know that after the time you’ve had, you just want to fall down on the sofa and relax, or take a long bath. You’re not obligated to head out, and with the drinks you might be in proximity to, you could feel even worse in the morning. Guarding your time isn’t being brittle, it’s about being realistic and attentive to your needs. Without time for it, no self-care effort can work.

Adjust Self-Care To Work For You

It’s so easy to think you have to conform to exactly the same approach as someone else, and if you’re focusing on activities like yoga, yes, instructions are essential to succeed. But the truth is that you get to decide how your self-care approach goes. Perhaps an “essential” skincare product, to you, is useless. Maybe you prefer to meditate instead of doing yoga. Perhaps gardening is better for you than exercise. It’s very easy to make self-care into a list of tasks that you have to keep up with or you’re “not doing it right.” But that goes against every principle of taking care of yourself and ultimately leads to frustration. So, if you need a little time, don’t feel bad about that. It’s healthy.

With this advice, you’re sure to protect yourself appropriately, even on a restorative self-care journey.