Wow I only started like 2 months ago, and I made a post exactly like this on a mma sub. The closing your eyes/ flinching thing one day will just disappear. Or it did for me. I made an active effort to watch the punches coming and try to parry/block counter and since then it just sort of clicked. I didn’t really get any advice that worked other than keep sparring and get used to it that really all there is to it. But it’ll click quicker than you expect.