I taught chess for years at chess clubs, and in my experience when a player learns new ideas (especially new strategic rather than tactical ideas) his results and rating tend to go down instead of up as he struggles to integrate the new material into his play.
Only after he succeeds in "blending" the new ideas into his playing style do his results and rating go back up, to a new level higher than before.
One benefit of looking at it from this perspective is that when you lose several games in a row, you can tell yourself "Hey! I'm getting better!"
I’m aware it’s entirely natural to dip, but I’m sure we all agree it sucks.