Well of course technical issues are all about practice—the mechanics of it. I can’t say anything terribly interesting about that probably, you know it’s a lot of work and time.
But listening isn’t about that at all. There’s a book I have in which a budding concert pianist talked about her adventures with a teacher. She was already adept enough to give recitals, but this teacher would just have her play the first 2 bars of a piece, and then interrupt her and say “no, that’s not it”. And she’d start over. This went on for months, it would bring her to tears of frustration to practice with him. But he had a reputation for turning out great concert pianists, so she stuck with it.
One day it started to shift… he didn’t say “stop”... and she hesitantly kept on going, then with more confidence. Something had shifted, she had learned to hear the music without having her attention divided between that and something else.
When I get “clogged up” like that, I just sit there and relax, and play something very simple… just a short progression of slow notes. I want to hear each and every note as if it were the first time. No technical challenge, no real melody even, just the sound of the string vibrating (or the electronics oscillating!), the feel of the key, the vibration of the instrument… you should be able to relax and just be at peace with that sound and not feel the need to accomplish anything or do anything special.
Ultimately, it’s the instrument that plays. You’re just decoration :)