Hi OneCoolHand, this is an excellent and extremely important question! Our upcoming course for CardsChat has a day that focuses on the mental game, and making a shorter video on it is a great idea too!
It sounds like you are already doing the two most important things: taking a break and studying more, so well done. I’d suggest not necessarily limiting yourself to a week, but instead making your reentry based on when you feel excited to play again.
I know it’s tough, but try to reframe your thinking to incorporate the variance that is necessary for the game of poker to be so much fun in the long run. It always stinks to lose to an underpair, but when it does happen, try to remind yourself that this is what happens ~20% of the time with an all-in pre. Remember that when someone gets it all in versus you as a huge dog (oftentimes with them making a significant mistake) and sucks out that you make a lot of money from their mistake in the long run, and that them having had this unlikely win makes their poor play even more likely to repeat in the future.
These are the steps I take when in a downswing, especially when it comes to the extensive studying. In particular, I like to review my own recent games with great scrutiny—and extreme honesty, looking for anything that could be improved upon potentially. Then I do the work to make that improvement happen, as well as more general studying—ie watching others’ videos/reading any new poker books.
When I start playing again I usually move down in stakes until I’ve regained more of my confidence and feel very excited about going back to my old games again!
Lastly, try to keep in mind that we tend to make our biggest improvements when we doubt ourselves the most. If we use our downswings as vehicles to progress into being even better poker players, then we can easily turn what feels like an awful downswing at the time into one of the most profitable things that could happen to us as poker players! I credit my downswings with being a much better player than I would be had it all been smooth sailing.
Hope this helps and that your luck turns around soon