Defeating the Dips of a Rollercoaster Relationship with Salah

I've been brought up in an Islamic household, so I've been raised to pray Salah, cover up, etc. i just recently started wearing Hijab fully, but there's this one thing that really bugs me. My Salah. I will not pray for a while, get an Iman rush, and then start following the prayer again. It'll be okay for a couple days, then I start to slowly neglect it. I'm tired of having an on/off relationship with Salah. What can I do ?

 Tired.

Assalamu Alaykum my dear sister, Tired.

Congrats on wearing Hijab fully, subhanAllah (:

Well it's good that you do pray sometimes, but we both know how Salah is sooo important! It's what we'll be asked of first on the Day of Judgement...

I understand how you can have an immense Iman rush sometimes and then when that ends you can feel really rotten inside. It happens to me too and it can really knock me down and frustrate me to be honest.

I call these times 'dips'... Like pizza dips, but not as yummy.

Look at it this way though, you need the dips in order get the highs. Otherwise the highs wouldn't feel so high, right?

When you get a dip, or feel one coming on (hehe, I'm talking about it like acne!), the first thing you gotta do is remember Allah. Do so much dhikr! Wherever you are! Don't let satan pull you away from Him!

Something I try to do is to regularly is evaluate myself and if the need is apparent, 'upgrade' myself (i'm talking like i'm the iphone4 or something :P).

How? Well try this template:

Date: [Insert Date Here] 

Iman Level: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 [Circle appropriate number] 

Reason for the Dip?: [Write anything which may have happened which may have caused the dip. Write anyone, any place, any event, anything. Make a note to yourself to stay away from a certain place or certain person if you think they've or it's affected the dip! If there's no reason, never mind(:] 

What I'm gonna do!: [Don't sit around thinking how you feel down, be proactive and do something about it! Write down a list of 5 things you can do everyday in the next week to make you remember Allah more, increase sincerity and inshaAllah, bring you out of this dip! Example of this could be; 100 Darood Shareefs

• Helping someone
  
• 
  Reading a verse/extra verse of Quran
  
• 
  Putting a £/$ in the collection box with the intention of doing it in order to feel closer to Allah.
  
• 
  Read the translation of the Quran (if you don't know Arabic), ponder over the meaning...
  
• 
  Review your list after a week and do the Iman Level thing again and see what you get. If it's still low then try again. Lifting the rungs of your targets every time. Keep striving and keep climbing inshaAllah!
  

Sign up for this if you want, I have, and it's really good! www.myspiritualfix.com

Basically spending an hour or so of your weekend youtube-ing lectures and talks from various Shaykhs, can be a good use of time and it can boost your Iman too, inshaAllah! :D

Check out another answer from a while back about Salah Struggles. And this is about getting Distracted in Salah.

Your rollercoaster relationship with Salah is a trial that Allah has given to you. Thing is Sis, don't see it as a calamity. Might sound strange, but see it as a blessing. You want strength and Allah has given you a test - and you CAN conquer it! Yes, you can! (Obama Style!), inshaAllah. It's a blessing because with this test, you can become such an even more amazing Muslimah. Your soul will have new strengths and qualities added to it, and if you have the determination to keep trying (I know you can!), Allah will be so pleased inshaAllah. Keep trying and be patient, Allah is with the patient and in time, the rollercoaster will end, inshaAllah.

"Every matter has its appointed time" The Holy Qur'an 54:3

Also, don't forget;

"With hardship there is relief, with hardship there is relief"

Wish you allll the best my sister<3

Keep Smiling (: <3