Simply everything you need to know, buy, wear, do and click on to beat heartbreak.

Step 1: Fake It Till You Make It
Step 2: Put Your Best (Virtual) Face Forward
Step 3: Call All Of Your Girlfriends
Step 4: Play Empowering Tunes
Step 5: Wash him out of your lair

Step 1: Fake It Till You Make It

The immediate aftermath of a rough break up may have you feeling like a used dishrag (bawl, rinse, repeat), but that doesn’t mean you have to look like one. To see you through, all you need is a foolproof, mood-boosting arsenal known as break up make up. When you’re ready to wean yourself off the Kleenex and face your public, here’s what you’ll need in your cosmetics bag:

Benefit Lemon Aid: A sheer yellow color correcting cream to hide discoloration on your lids.

Benefit Eye Bright: a brightening pencil you can apply along your lashes to neutralize puffiness and battle bags.

Smiley eau de parfum: The world’s first anti-depressant fragrance. We’re sure the R&D was a little more thorough than this, but try looking at that bottle and not smiling.

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Step 2: Put Your Best (Virtual) Face Forward

The good thing about breaking up in this millennium is that you can actually communicate nearly 24/7 without ever leaving the house. And now, even create a mini-me who looks a lot better than you’re feeling to represent you in cyberspace! Enter meez.com, a personal media site that allows you to create a virtual avatar in the most fabulous detail: Choose your hairstyle, skin tone, wardrobe, and even a theme for your alter ego (heiress, hipster…), then, let her do the talking (on IM, GoogleChat, MySpace) until you feel like yourself again. In any case, it’s a surprisingly fun waste of time to find out what you’d look like if made of pixels.

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Step 3: Call All Of Your Girlfriends

A 2002 UCLA study suggests that surrounding yourself with pals is a good way to counteract the physiological effects of x-treme stress: lumps in throats, butterflies in stomachs, and, in the case of a break up, that overwhelming urge to become one with your now-empty bed. Why? It seems women actually respond to stress with a cascade of the world’s friendliest brain chemical, Oxytocin, which causes us to “tend and befriend.” So when your nearest and dearest circle up to protect you, that collective wave of Oxytocin has a calming effect. Also of note: This response does not occur in men, says Dr. Laura Cousin Klein, PhD, one of the study’s authors, because testosterone–which men produce in high levels when they’re under stress–seems to counteract Oxytocin. So really you could say it’s scientifically proven that he’s feeling worse than you are right now.

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Step 4: Play Empowering Tunes

There’s nothing like hearing “your song” for the first time after it’s over. What else on earth can elicit sweet reminiscence and sheer nausea at the same time? But listening to a heartbreaking ballad over and over is akin to stabbing yourself to death with a butter knife. Instead, it’s time to live life by a new set of lyrics–preferably ones that make you want to swish your hips, toss your hair, and give he-who-shall-not-be-named a new title: He who shall soon be forgotten.

Tango’s Top 5 Anthems to Beat Heartbreak

The Classic: “I Will Survive” - Gloria Gaynor

The Sassy: “Shake It Off” - Mariah Carey

The Classy: “Survivor” - Destiny’s Child

The Bitter: “You Oughta Know” - Alanis Morissette

The Better-Off-Without: “Since You Been Gone” - Kelly Clarkson

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Step 5: Wash him out of your lair.

It’s inevitable that your life will change now that he’s gone, but who says it has to be for the worse? Take control by overhauling your environment: From the annals of Feng Shui, the ancient art of arranging a physical space to improve your mental outlook, a few minor adjustments for maximum impact. First, altering your sleeping environment is vital, so consider shopping for new sheets in colors that calm you. Then, create a relaxing bedtime ritual (like a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow or drifting off to Miles Davis) to help you wind down in the evening. Now would also be a great time to shift the position of your bed for, literally, a new point of view. Feng Shui rules dictate that your bed should never directly face the door, but if possible, take an extra step and place it on an angle in the corner. You’ll create new space and channel positive energy when you rise every morning. Plus, a just-in-for-spring tip: Feng Shui-ites also suggest adding peonies to a vase just outside your bedroom to usher in romance.

-Rajul Punjabi

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