I’ll sit there staring at the wall for minutes at a time just running through narrative in my head. It’s a bit difficult to keep it on track sometimes, but with some concentration I can pull the reins back to keep focus. It probably looks like I am “doing nothing” but hey it works for me! I’ve never really tried verbalizing to myself, but I’ve effectively gotten over problems by rubber ducking with a peer, makes sense that it would work talking to myself as well :)