contemplate

contemplate (one's) navel

To be excessively focused on one's personal problems or concerns. Good luck getting John's attention—he's too busy contemplating his navel to help anybody else.
See also: contemplate, navel
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

contemplate your navel

spend time complacently considering yourself or your own interests; concentrate on one issue at the expense of a wider view.
See also: contemplate, navel
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • contemplate (one's) navel
  • contemplate your navel
  • gaze
  • navel
  • gaze at (one's) navel
  • contemplation
  • navel-contemplation
  • navel-gazing
  • low blow
  • breakneck
References in periodicals archive
For me, plastic ornaments or not, I will not have to contemplate how joyful it is to experience this time of year through the eyes of a child.
And at the end of the story, when the unlikely survivors hear the voice of the sea from the safety of shore, they feel "that they could then be interpreters," free to contemplate and make sense of their experiences together or on their own.
Joseph Schumpeter's famous phrase "creative destruction" rings loudly when we contemplate the impact of new technologies on health care.
But what a thing to contemplate, more funny strange than f unny ha-ha--a bit unnerving, in fact, despite the visceral uplift provided by Ofili's command of shamelessly rich color.
It contemplates the use of nuclear weapons as just another tool in the shed, with the Bush Administration talking publicly about the utility of such weapons in a way not heard since the early, crazy days of Ronald Reagan.
Borland's treatment leaves the question open for viewers to contemplate.
The small wooden Buddha sits bowed, muscles rippling, with his hands covering his eyes so that he can concentrate - so that he can focus on contemplating whatever it is that Buddhas contemplate.
Mother Teresa says we must take time to be silent and to contemplate. She writes: `We decided to open our first home for contemplative sisters in New York instead of the Himalayas because I felt silence and contemplation were needed more in the cities of the world.'
We have become accustomed to the museum as treasure house, warehouse, even theatre or theme park, but within these zones of collapsing space and time there is a need for real places, made by architects, from which to contemplate the landscape, the past and the present.
A rabbi once said: "When I contemplate the world, I can either laugh or cry.
But, personally, I couldn't contemplate a relationship or a fling with a younger man.
I hope that pleases my caller and gives pause for thought to those who would dare contemplate closing our libraries.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON insists Manchester United will force Le Havre to retract their claims that the Premier League champions paid off the parents of a French teenager and said it would be "crazy" to even contemplate such action.
How any mother could even contemplate drugging and locking up an innocent child is just staggering.
1.61-14(a) contemplate the payment of another's taxes when the payer is not doing so, to make the recipient whole.