For those who know the secret, swimming can be a lifelong form of pleasurable and invigorating exercise. Fortunately, for adults who have spent a lifetime either too afraid to swim or just uncomfortable in the water, this is a secret eager to be shared because it doesn’t actually belong to the swimmers but to the water itself. It’s simply this: The water wants to hold you up—that is its nature. It should help you in overcoming your fear of swimming to know that no matter what your weight or height, you will find that the water has no problem lifting you. The simple steps below are meant to gradually introduce you to this feeling of the water’s support.

There are 5 inhibitory factors, which prevent a baby from inhaling water when born: The baby in utero is oxygenated through the umbilical cord via the placenta. When a baby breathes air, the intercostal muscles and diaphragm move in a regular and rhythmic pattern. 24 to 48 hours before the onset of labor the prostaglandin E2 levels form the placenta cause a slowing down or stopping in the fetal breathing movements (FBM). The diaphragm and intercostal muscles become suspended and there is a decrease in the FBM. At the birth, the baby’s muscles for breathing simply don’t work...

The Lloyds Banking Group said its chairman, Victor Blank, planned to step down by June 2010. Alexander Leitch, 61, was named the bank’s deputy chairman, Lloyds said. Lloyds agreed to buy HBOS for about £7.7 billion ($11.7 billion) in September as the government sought to prevent HBOS from collapsing after credit markets froze. HBOS posted a 2008 net loss of £7.5 billion, greater than Lloyds had originally expected. The British government owns 43 percent of Lloyds and its stake may rise to up to 75 percent.