This question arose when I was told that there were positive and negative lobes in an orbital. I wanted to know on what basis this was proposed and hence I searched it on web and found out that it resembled the phases of the wave. But I always thought of orbital as a 2-d racing circuit for the electron, in which the electron would race around while bobbing up and down. Hence I wanted to know whether the p-orbital is the wave itself or is it like a racing circuit?

Here is my attempt to explain it visually! (Great graphics? Thank you!)