navel-gazing

[ ney-vuhl-gey-zing ]

noun

, Slang.

1. excessive absorption in self-analysis or focus on a single issue.

navel-gazing

noun

1. informal.
   self-absorbed behaviour

Word History and Origins

Origin of navel-gazing¹

First recorded in 1955–60; navel ( def ) + gaz(e) ( def ) + -ing ¹( def ); perhaps from Hours With the Mystics (1856) by Robert Alfred Vaughan, English Congregationalist minister and author (1823–57), “...if a man shut himself up… turning his thoughts inward, gazing towards his navel..., he would at length behold a divine glory….”