What to do when you fall off the prayer wagon

Don't set yourself up for failure. Lower your standards to make it easier for you to get back on track. If you make it too hard by intending on praying all the prayers that you missed right away, you will essentially de-motivate yourself.

Do what you can at the moment, and if you find that any plan you make is discouraging you from getting back on track, lower the requirements for that plan.

What to do if you spend two days not praying?

I suggest beginning anew from the time you decide to go back to praying regularly. Don't worry about the prayers you missed, but keep them in mind. Once you pick up momentum and you get into the habit of praying again, start praying extra prayers here and there to make up for what you missed.

I look at prayer the way I look at exercise. If you haven't been exercising in a while and you want to get back into the routine, you have to be realistic and start slow if you want to make the process enjoyable and easy.

Say your routine is to exercise for an hour a day and you haven't exercised in 10 days. Exercising for 10 hours to make up for what you missed will cause fatigue and undermine your resolve.

Prayer can also be compared to brushing your teeth. Just because you didn't brush your teeth yesterday doesn't mean you shouldn't brush them today, and if you haven't brushed them in a long time, it doesn't mean that it's wrong to brush them every now and then.

The following poem was meant as a joke to make fun of ignorant Bedouins, but I see it as a practical way to stick to prayer, and an example of positive intentions toward God:

إليك اعتذاري من صلاتي جـالـسـا .. على غير طهر مومياً نحو قبلـتـي
فمالي ببـرد الـمـاء يا رب طـاقة .. ورجلاي لا تقوى على ثني ركبتـي
ولكنني أستـغـفـر الـلـه شـاتـياً .. وأقضيكها يا رب في وجه صيفتـي
وإن أنا لم أفعل فـأنـت مـحـكـم .. بما شئت من صفعي ومن نتف لحيتي

Lord, I apologize to you for praying while I am
sitting down, without taking baths when I need to. I can only make gestures
towards the direction of my prayer.

Oh Lord, I am unable to
tolerate cold water and my legs are unable to bend my knees. But I ask for your
forgiveness in the winter and I will make up for my shortcomings in the summer.
And if I don't, you have the authority, if you wish, to smack me and plunk my
beard.

What's wrong with quitting prayer?

I think the reason this is important is that many people who begin praying often do so because they feel the need for a sense of meaning, connection and belonging, perhaps the deepest human longing. If for some reason they stop praying, they might feel a sense of separation from themselves, which often causes unhappiness.

Prayer keeps you anchored spiritually even if your prayer is dry and even if you don't think of what you are reciting during prayer. The fact that you have intended it is a good spiritual anchor.

If you can achieve that sense of spiritual fulfillment in ways other than regular prayer, it might be enough to keep you inspired, happy and at peace. If you can't, it might be necessary to take the steps mentioned above to insure that a sense of connection and belonging can be held on to.

Also see: Ideas for making prayer easier