Forced Prayer

[Arkilogue]

The "target" of the prayer is the quality of the prayer itself.  Like interacts with and attracts like.

The effect of such an expression passing through you cannot be "helped".  For every electric action there is an equal and opposite magnetic reaction.

The religious purpose of worship of a deity is to receive spiritual sustenance.

Now we're back to word salad. I'm calling on Poe's Law again. If not, then save your preaching for another thread.

You have 3 basic choices: Be grateful for you existence, complain about your existence, be indifferent about your existence. The later would be extremely hard to perfectly maintain.

So given your free will of orientation at anytime, at any space, in any circumstance...how do you choose to spend your time/energy?

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Because you are not expressing it to nothing. You are expressing it at the very least, to yourself. The book and ink marks as letters and formed words/idea give you the reflective membrane, material information and space to know what you currently express.  So that you can reflect upon it and refine it into new and greater expressions.

It is the development of purpose and meaning.

Self reflection is absolutely wonderful. That's not what you were saying before though. If you want to change your tune and deny what you meant before, then great. We'll go with that instead.

Now that is similar to writing in a journal. As soon as it comes to "being thankful" to some outside mystery, you are going far beyond the journal comparison.

Being thankful is not a packet to some point of address at some being's door step, some where "out there".

It is a radiative nature of immediate being.

[Angrboda]

I don't know about using prayer time as an exercise in gratitude, but you could use the time to meditate. It's silent and nobody would notice the difference. Just adopt a simple meditation like counting your breaths from 1 to 5, over and over again. Supposedly it's a good way to relieve stress.

[rado84]

When I was younger my parents forced me to pray and since I was unable to make them understand that I was an atheist, I just started saying whatever they wanted to hear. Naturally, I pretended to be praying and I suppose in their eyes I must have seemed as a true believer but in my mind I remained an atheist. So you can do the same. Thus you'll save yourself the headache trying to explain something they will never understand.

[Faith No More]

Why does it feel good to have a journal where I express my feelings to nothing?

Because it causes your brain to process your emotions. Writing things down makes a different part of your brain acknowledge and process your feelings than if you just think about them, and that helps alleviate the discomfort those emotions can cause.