Question: I will preface my question by stating I am very new to writing and new to this website. I am here for help.

I'm writing a collection of inspirational short stories, as though I was sitting across from someone over coffee sharing my experiences. Because my normal manner of speaking is in passive voice, I am struggling desperately to convert over to active voice, which is basically stifling the flow of my thoughts and words, making them almost stiff and impersonal. 

I have been studying the grammar rules and know exactly what needs to be done, but I am stuck - what is the best advice you can offer for someone in my situation? I am not ashamed or embarrassed to ask this but would appreciate your input. Thank you.

Answer: 
I'm struggling with the idea that you customarily write in passive voice, because, well, people just don't do that. Passive voice is really pretty rare.

Just to clarify what we're talking about:

"Joe fed the dog" is active voice.

"The dog was fed by Joe" is passive voice.

But--

"The dog was eating" is ACTIVE voice.

Is that, perhaps, what you're talking about? It's not passive voice. It is past continuous tense, and it is possible to overuse past continuous tense.

More examples:

The club was disbanded: Passive voice.

The club was in turmoil: Active voice, but past continuous tense.

Jane was seated by the hostess: Passive voice.

Jane was sitting at a window table: Active voice, but past continuous tense.

I realize this isn't really an answer, but it's hard to answer without being reasonably confident of what the problem is.
Do you know someone who speaks in an active voice?

If so then a simple method is to have that person (In your minds eye) speak your dialogue to you.

Alternatively, if you have a favourite character who uses active voice, then that is another possible person you have speak this dialogue to you.

With this kind of visualisation I find it helpful to be in a quiet room - or have my headphones on - to completely isolate myself from outside stimulus. I will also have my eyes closed. Then I spend some time first getting into the head of the person or character I want to "speak" the dialogue.

Then I will have them do so in my head. For me personally I also find that if I try to do any of this out load it doesn't work very well - the sound of my own voice gets in the way.

Let things slow down - try to frame things a small concept at a time. Once it begins, it will flow naturally. Keep rolling with it and after a while you should be able to begin recording what your character is saying.