More Americans have this image of prayer than any other, and it's horribly inadequate. The style, content, and location of your praying is entirely up to you. You can invent your own prayer or recite from a book. You can pray in a word, a whisper, a plea, a song. Above all, pray from your heart.
Prayer is the very core of man's life.
It is either petitional or, in its wider sense, is inward communication. In either case, the ultimate result is the same. Even when it is petitional, the petition should be for the cleansing and purification of the soul, for freeing it from the layers of ignorance and darkness that envelops it. Prayer is no mere exercise of words or of the ears, it is no mere repetition of empty formula. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.