I now realize why I, and many others, envy the Ghibli girls β because of the one I don't envy: Anna Sasaki (the main character of When Marnie Was There).
In scenes that make us crave the Ghibli "lifestyle", for a lack of a better term, the characters are doing extremely mundane activities β something we, theoretically, could easily integrate into our lives. In fact, most of us already do. The top results on Pinterest for "Ghibli mood" are made up of studying, working, doing chores, eating, cooking or sleeping.
So why do we envy them? Now it's time to go back to Anna Sasaki. The third picture I used of her was in the beginning of the movie as she was drawing. On paper, she's doing a mundane activity in a Ghibli movie. It should count, right? But no one envies her. Because she, as opposed to the other Ghibli girls, isn't occupied by the activity she's performing.
She's occupied with concerns. She's not in the present, but inside her head β as most of us are. The instances where we feel envy are the ones where the characters are in reality, it's as simple as that. They're not thinking about all the other things they need to get done, or how they don't fit in, or about that one awkward moment from 3 years ago. They're doing one singular activity, and that's it. They're trurly at peace.