@mararenn I was creative writer all my life, but for over a decade I did technical writing for safety systems and programs. I quit and have been trying to win back my creative words.
Not a direct fit, but in some respects, I know that experience.
@mararenn I think it helps to remember that creative writing is more a thing a reader feels than specifically analyzes. Where as more professional writing must stand up to detailed scrutiny.
One little exercise I did a few times to try and break that habit to define and explain was imagine I was 8 years old and trying to explain my feelings to a stranger. It doesn't create great prose, but it is mindset shift that can help build a new habit around prose.
@mararenn Yes and it is to remember how to let your heart speak without forcing it to frame or justify itself.
Feelings are as real as thoughts, but they are more timid and it takes a lot to coax them out when you've been building a wall between them and your prose for so long. For myself, I had to work at eroding that wall as un-self-consciously as possible. Maybe that is also the case for you.
Mara Renn
Astrobach 
Naomi Heartbreak