Hi Coconut (great handle)

Like you I’m a great story teller. My mind just won’t quite down at times and most of the stories I tell myself are negative. end result low self esteem  = social awkward.  The advice I was most commonly given was to stop telling myself negative stories and only tell positive ones. As I never fully believe the positive stories I was spinning it didn’t work.  It actually made things worse.

What did work was when I noticing when I was telling myself a story and just stop telling it without filling the gap with other stories or the like. No labeling, no judgments, no excuses, no incrimination, no ‘positive thinking… When I couldn’t stop the story I acknowledged that and moved on.

You may also find Viktor Frankl’s work helpfull

1. Dereflection: Dereflection is aimed at helping someone focus away from themselves and toward other people so that they can become whole and spend less time being self-absorbed about a problem or how to reach a goal.
2. Paradoxical intention: Paradoxical intention is a technique that has the patient wish for the thing that is feared most. This was suggested for use in the case of anxiety or phobias, in which humor and ridicule can be used when fear is paralyzing. For example, a person with a fear of looking foolish might be encouraged to try to look foolish on purpose. Paradoxically, the fear would be removed when the intention involved the thing that was feared most.
3. Socratic dialogue: Socratic dialogue would be used in logotherapy as a tool to help a patient through the process of self-discovery through his or her own words. In this way, the therapist would point out patterns of words and help the client to see the meaning in them. This process is believed to help the client realize an answer that is waiting to be discovered.