Don’t ever feel like you are being “punished” for your behavior. What you think is punishment is actually just feedback on what works and what doesn’t. I say this to release you from unnecessary guilt and shame that you may have picked up along the way.
The worst thing you can do is beat yourself up. Try and find humor in the situation – no matter how horrible it appears. Seek out your most compassionate friends and express your temporary turmoil to them. When we stay down in a state of regret or anger for too long, it clouds us from finding new solutions.
It is also in our endless search for the “right” answers, that wears us down the most. And yet, it’s only natural to keep trying new approaches until we find something that works. Here is a good example: say you are on an elimination diet, and no matter how many foods you cut out, you still feel like crap. This can be totally discouraging! Not to mention energy depleting and physically draining. So, you’ve got to have the attitude of acceptance that you may not find the answer right away, and that you may go through a lot of wrong decisions before you get to the one you need.
When people say, “be gentle with yourself” I think this is what they mean. We are all imperfect human beings, wanting to know what’s right, and wanting to do what’s right, but we’re not always able to find it. So, we have to have not only patience with our search, but a mental understanding that there cannot be a timeline. Being gentle is being okay with imperfection and many failed attempts.
Maybe this would be a good time to prioritize whatever’s most important for you to sort out first, and then leave the rest for God to deal with. In fact, this would be a great time to make a “God to-do list.” Simply offer up everything that’s too overwhelming for you, and everything that you still need an answer to; then walk away. Forget about it, and let the answers come as they may.