How To Create When The Impetus For Creation Is Not Reaction?

I'm stumped. I know the information that I need to answer this question for myself is lurking around underneath other layers of information in my psyche but right now, I'm not sure where it is precisely and how to gain access to it.

I've given up creating art be it music, writing, computer programs as a reaction. It's time to evolve past this way of doing things. I no longer find much satisfaction in the process or results. Plus employing this method means having to have something to react to. I never liked the dynamic of this equation; it sets up unhealthy dependencies.

So how now?

Over the last 6 months I've noticed a couple of people talking about creating with such ease and joy it's stopped me in my tracks. Green with envy, I listened closely, searching for clues to the mystery of how. As far as I can tell, they seem to approach creation the way I think about visualization and imagination which incidentally are two words I've come to better understand over the last couple of years. They create, develop, and modify out of thin air for sheer pleasure. Thus, they exist without the need for a catalyst. The entrance price for this approach. Belief in one's right to create.

Without too much analysis, I'd guess that up until now I'd not believed in my right to create. Without a catalyst, I had no permission to create.